Adventures of a Rat Bandit 2
by Ungol The Goblin
Summary: Chin, a rat bandit, tries to succeed at life, but the Furious Five and a hidden treasure are going to make that difficult.
1. Chapter 1

It was late at night. The restless winds shook the trees and mighty waves crashed upon the shore. The sky was dark, darker than usual. The moon was hidden by the black clouds that were gathering. Commander Hon Fa-Gao didn't like the clouds. A storm was brewing. The large rhino watched the black clouds gather fearfully.

He was in charge of Shensheng fortress, a building built to keep safe many wondrous treasures and sacred relics. It was virtually impossible for any thieves to get in, but that didn't stop Fa-Gao from worrying. The large rhino paced back and forth in his office.

Meanwhile three dark shapes came skulking out from the dark swamps nearby. It was hard to see them because of how dark it was, but they had little pink hands and long hairless tails. They came to the outer wall of Shensheng fortress and carefully began scaling the walls. They waited, at the very top of the wall, for two of the guards to walk past before slipping onto the other side and sliding down the wall.

"What do we have here? Intruders!" snorted an angry rhino from behind the three.

The rhino grabbed them before they could run off. While the Rhino's back was turned a pink tendril, like a small scaly tentacle curled around a ring of keys on the rhino's belt and pulled it into the shadows.

"When will you thieves ever learn, no one gets into the treasury! Thanks to guards like me" said the rhino as he tossed the three out of the fortress.

Meanwhile inside the fortress, in the kitchen which was just across the treasury, a chef was busy making dinner with his helpers. The chef looked very threatening. He had a mean glare, sharp teeth, and one eye.

A small rat entered the kitchen; his tail was wrapped around a ring of keys.

"Hey boss, I got the keys"

"Shhhh! Shut up Cheng, give me those keys" hissed the chef "Tell me, are the others outside?"

"Yeah"

"Well hurry up and let them in through the back door you idiot"

Cheng opened the back door. Three rats entered.

"Hey Chin" one of them called "I got the-"

"SHHHHH!" hissed Chin "You'll ruin everything!"

"Oh sorry"

"What is it Da-Ming?"

"I got your crossbow!" said Da-Ming holding up a large bundle proudly.

"Careful with that you simple minded dolt!" said Chin as he snatched the bundle from Da-Ming's little hands.

Chin had worked for several days straight building that crossbow. It was beautiful and well made. It was large and well polished. It had a special mechanism that allowed it to fire multiple bolts without reloading, a spring would pull the bow string back while popping another bolt up to be fired. The bow was specially made as well. It was a composite bow, a weapon that was very hard to make, but very powerful. The crossbow was spectacular, it didn't look a thing like the makeshift devices Chin usually carried with him.

"Da-Ming listen to me, this crossbow is literally worth more than our life"

"…oh"

"If there was a fire and I had to choose between you and the crossbow, I'd save the crossbow"

"Got it boss"

"Now listen close you bunch of flea-bitten, brainless, numbskulls. This is our first big time job. Our first mission if you will, a chance for us to rise to power as fearsome bandits!

If anyone of you messes this up for me I'll have your tail as a belt, now I hope you all remember your jobs, Cheng you grab a broom and head upstairs, when Bai-Ling comes let her in, if any guard asks you're the janitor. Da-Ming, Dong, you two help me here in the kitchen, the rest of you stand ready."

Chin, Da-Ming, and Dong began making moon cakes and buns. Chin reached into one of the many pockets and compartments of his armor (Which was hidden under normal clothes) and pulled out a handful of strange dark green herbs. Chin carefully sprinkled a little bit of the herbs into the dough of each bun and cake before baking them.

After they were done Chin put them on a platter. Just then Cheng and Bai-Ling came into the kitchen.

"Bai-Lings here boss"

"Good, begin phase two. Bai-Ling do you remember what you're suppoused to do?"

"…_kinda_"

"What do you mean _kinda_?"

"Could you run it by me once more?"

"*sigh* you fly up to the treasury and disable the device that keeps the first door shut"

"Okay…I was just wondering… how do I do that?"

"Luckily for you" said Chin pulling out a piece of paper "I have our plan written down, the first device can only be unlocked by a special key all the guards wear"

Chin held up the stolen key ring, one of the keys was very strange looking.

"You will disable the device, which is located above the door, so that when I unlock the door it cannot be locked again, to do so you must remove the spring that pushes the two steel bars"

"er…"

"To remove the spring you must first remove the pin that holds it in place"

"So…"

"Open the box, find the mechanism that keeps the pin down, there will be winding gears"

"Uh…"

"Clog the gears and the machine can easily be removed"

"Okay"

"Use Da-Ming's bean paste, that stuff is more adhesive then any glue I know of"

"Got it" said Bai-Ling as she flew as stealthily as she could towards the treasury.

Chin picked up the platter of pastries.

"The rest of you guys stay hidden and don't come out till I tell you" hissed Chin.

Bai-Ling was at the treasury. The door way was made from solid steel and was decorated with dragons. At the top of the doorway was a small box. Bai-Ling did everything Chin told her to do, after she came down from the door there was a bit of machinery stuck to her claw, she had to remove it with her teeth.

Chin approached the door, it was huge and intimidating. Chin took out the special key and put it in the lock, which was located in the snarling mouth of a metal dragon. The large door swung open to reveal a hallway filled with guards. The guards got up weapons ready, until they noticed the platter of pleasant pastries.

"Sorry if I startled you, commander decided you guys could do with a reward" said Chin placing the platter in front of them.

The rhino guards each took a pastry and devoured them voraciously. Then one yawned, then another and soon the hallway was filled with sleeping rhinos. Chin signaled his gang. Bai-Ling, Cheng, Dong, Da-Ming and the others cautiously crept inside. They made their way to the end of the hallway to find an even bigger door.

'Be Warned Those That Make It to This Point, Nothing But Death Awaits Thieves'

Luckily for Chin, most of his gang didn't know how to read (He had tried teaching them before, but just gave up) Bai-Ling however could read and didn't like what the door said.

"Chin-er boss, are you so sure about this?"

"Don't worry Bai-Ling" said Chin "I have an angle"

"Which is?"

"My crossbow"

"Oh…yeah I forgot about that"

"Don't worry, they'll be caught off guard, they aren't expecting anyone to actually make it to this point"

"If you say so"

The device on this door was much more complicated then the ne Bai-Ling disabled, but it wasn't much of a challenge to Chin. Chin climbed up the door and opened the device. With one hand Chin held open the trap like jaws of a bit of machinery that was in the way, with the other he stopped some razor sharp gears from turning and with his tail (Before Chin had began teaching his gang what he called 'the Prehensile Tail Technique' so for only he and Cheng were any good at it, and even they were somewhat clumsy) he removed the mainspring with a hook.

` Chin slid down the door and turned to his gang.

"Alright you lot listen up, on my command we burst into the room, this is a snatch and go operation, once I get what I'm after we're outta here, there's guards in there, elite guards, but thanks to some recent budget cuts there aren't as many in there as there should be, so that evens the odds a bit"

"Got it boss"

"Good, be ready" said Chin as he slipped the key into the lock.

Chin's gang drew out various weapons, many of them strange and complex which Chin had designed himself, while others were standard, swords, knives, spears, clubs etc

Chin opened the door.

They swarmed in screaming, the room contained shelf upon shelf and pile upon pile of treasures and riches. There were only three rhino guards. They jumped to their feet and began searching for their weapons (they had been asleep before) Chin aimed his crossbow. All the rhinos ducked.

"The year of the Rat has come early" Chin shouted as he fired his crossbow.

One of the rhinos got up and charged at him. But Chin suddenly grabbed a very expensive vase of a shelf and tossed it in the air. The rhino jumped and slid, and just managed to catch the vase before it hit the floor. Chin ran up his back and jumped at a pedestal on which a scroll rested. Chin grabbed it just as the rhino came towards him. Chin fired his crossbow. Although composite bows were well known to be able to pierce armor, the armor this rhino wore was of a special kind. The bolt ricocheted off the armor, bounced off a wall and broke off the tip of a Guan Dao another rhino had been carrying. Needless to say the rhino was then unarmed when three rats jumped on him and knocked him to the ground.

The rhino Chin had been dealing with, however, was still armed. He grabbed Chin by the tail and lifted him up.

"I'm going to crush you, you little-"

Bai-Ling tossed several antique plates and bowls. In a flash the rhino let go of Chin and somehow managed to grab all the dishes before they reached the floor. Chin tossed the scroll to Bai-Ling.

"Take it, fly out of here now!"

Bai-Ling grabbed the scroll and flew out.

"Come on you lot, lets get outta here"

Chin began to running and so did his gang with three angry rhinos behind them. Other guards who heard the commotion came running towards them. One of them threw a spear at Bai-Ling as she flew passed. The spear missed, but Bai-Ling dropped the scroll. It fell and Chin caught it with his tail at the same moment grabbing a dish cloth from his chef disguise and throwing it in the face of one of the rhinos.

While the rhino was momentarily distracted Chin slid under his legs and onto the other side of him. Then while dodging and weaving his way passed other rhinos guards Chin placed the scroll into his mouth and scuttled up a later as quickly as he could. By now most of the guards had decided that Chin was their target, not his gang, so Cheng, Dong, and Da-ming (and the others) escaped out the back.

As soon as Chin climbed all the way to the top of the later (which was very high up by the way) he kicked the later over. All the rhinos that had been climbing after him fell to the ground and lay on top of each other exhausted. Chin spat the scroll into his little hand.

"Hah! Those were the elite guards!"

"No they weren't -blasted budget cuts-But I am" snorted commander Fa-Gao.

It had started raining.

"_…oh ,bother_"

"Now are you gonna give me that scroll or am I gonna have to break every bone in your body?"

"uh…" said Chin who was unable to think up a witty retort "Bye!"

Chin placed the scroll back into his mouth and jumped off the wall into the ocean below.


	2. Chapter 2

There was an inn, in the middle of the wilderness. The inn was perched atop a rock in the middle of a river, there were wooden stairs on both sides so the inn acted doubled as a bridge. Chin and his gang were inside.

"So sir…" Da-Ming began "Why didn't we steal any treasure?"

"Never mind that Da-Ming!" Chin snapped "I've got the most valuable treasure in that whole bloody vault!"

"A scroll?"

"Are you doubting me Da-Ming?"

"Oh no sir! It's just that… you know, we kinda risked our lives for a scroll"

"This is no ordinary scroll you numbskull! This is the only known copy of the works of Hao-Mai Wang!" said Chin holding up scroll.

Chin read aloud.

"O delicate glittering light

Across the raging sea

A treasure, akin the to the sun's own might

Kept far away from me"

"Oh that was a pretty poem sir"

"It's a riddle not a poem you idiot! This entire scroll contains riddles that, if I'm correct, will lead us to treasure!"

Chin's gang were silent for a moment, they liked treasure.

"How do we know for certain that this scroll is accurate?" asked Bai-Ling

"I've done research Bai-Ling, countless hours of research, as soon as I heard about this scroll I knew I had to find it, trust me, if this works out we'll have enough gold to buy a thousand inns and then some!"

Meanwhile, outside the inn, a group of dark figures had gathered. It was night, the new moon made everything black, which of course made things very hard to see, they were in fact having trouble seeing one another.

"So this is his territory is it?"

"I hope so, otherwise that pig bandit was lying"

"I hate having to ask _him_ for a favor"

"Don't worry none of us are particularly fond of him I know, but he might help, he does know how the criminal mind works"

"Yeah but why him?"

"We've narrowed down our choices, he's the only one"

"The only one?"

"The only one that'll work for free"

"But why will he help us? He's terrified of us"

"Terrified of you actually"

"But what makes you think he'll help us?"

"Simple, if he doesn't help us willingly, we'll threaten him"

"Guys? Where's Po?"

"Po!"

A large shape dropped down from a window.

"I was…just you know, going for a surprise attack an-"  
>"Po we need to be subtle about this, there are civilians in there, no surprise attacks"<p>

"Ohhh, gotcha, we sneak past the civilians then we kick butt!"

"No, well not unless we have to, but all we have to do is walk in, find Chin, and tell him what we want, the butt kicking is what will happen if he doesn't cooperate with us"

Chin and his gang were still in the inn. There were many trays of food placed at the large table they were clustered around. Chin was just getting comfortable where he was sitting when Tigress walked into the inn. Of course she was followed by the rest of the Furious Five and Po, but Chin recognized Tigress immediately. The table was just adjacent to the door. it also didn't help that the inn was almost empty save a couple rabbits, a pig, and a antelope. There was no place where Chin could've hid.

As soon as Tigress had walked in Chin had spat out the tea he'd been drinking and had nearly fallen off his chair.

"Chin" Tigress began "We've come to-"

""

Chin was off.

" –ask for your assistance" Continued Tigress somewhat dumbfounded.

Chin had shot up from his seat and bolted for the window, he had leapt out before the rest of the Furious Five even knew what was going on.

"Maybe I should've gone in first" said Mantis

"Don't worry everyone" said Po to the few customers of the inn "He was just awed by the Dragon Warrior's awesomeness nothing to worry about"

Chin was running as fast as he could. No matter how fast he ran he couldn't move forward. When he turned around he saw that Tigress had somehow caught up to him and was stepping on his tail causing Chin to run in place. Upon seeing Tigress Chin doubled his speed, he was in flight or fight mode, he was so frightened he didn't even realize that Tigress had her foot on his tail, however seeing that Tigress was right behind him was enough to keep him running.

"Chin…Chin…CHIN!"

"Whatever it is I didn't do it!"

"We know that! What happened is beyond your capabilities"

"What?" Chin had stopped running in place.

"There have recently been a series of thefts, we need you to help us find out what happened"

"…Why me?"

"Because all our other choices are too stupid" said Mantis, Po, the Furious Five and Chin's gang had all come outside.

"So I'm the smartest of bandits?"

"That and we don't need to pay you" Crane added

"What if I want pay? Hypothetically"

"What if want to kick your butt?" said Mantis

"Ah…very well then…I guess"

"Besides if you help us out, Fa Gao here wont put a bounty on your head"

"Well I guess that'll do jus- who?"

Commander Fa Gao stepped forward. Chin immediately recognized the rhino from fort Shensheng. Fa Gao was shorter then Chin remembered. Back at the fort Fa Gao had been standing over him and had seemed a lot bigger, but seeing him now he was actually quite stout.

"Hello Chin" said Fa Gao uncertainly "You are quite lucky that I owe the Furious Five a favor, otherwise you would've been arrested by now"

"Er… you don't want the scroll back do you-because I lost it!…yeah lost it…that's it, that's it exactly!"

"You may keep the scroll"

"What?"

"Upon doing inventory of the treasury I realized that you'd stolen a scroll of Hao-Mai Wang's poetry, although one of a kind, it is nothing special"

"You sure?" said Mantis "We could make him give the scroll back"

"Why would I want a scroll of Hao-Mai Wang's poetry?"

"What do you mean?"

"His poems are alright enough, but he was a bit weird. I heard he used to be a sailor who stood in the sun too long, they say that the heat melted a part of his brain"

"Really now?" said Chin, who had researched Hao-Mai Wang thoroughly, but had never heard of that legend.

"He spent the last days of his life ranting about butterflies. He never trusted butterflies, or dolphins, or his own tail for that matter, bit of nut him"


	3. Chapter 3

"So" Chin asked cautiously "What is it that happened exactly?"

"We aren't to sure" said Tigress "But from what we've gathered there have been a series of bold thefts along a coastal area. Not to far from Shensheng"

"Ah"

"The few witnesses we have described what they called 'clouds of fire' "

"Clouds of fire huh?"

"One of these attacks happened at Shensheng shortly after your attack, we've ruled you out as a suspect, seeing as you only stole one scroll"

"Right?"

"It was sorta like a bright red smoke" began Fa-Gao "It came fluttering in, we managed to blow it away with several antique fans, it was bizarre, almost like it was alive"

"Well this is all very curious, but I'll have to check out the crime scene tomorrow *yawn* this rat's tired"

"We're leaving tonight" said Tigress

"Tonight!"

"Pack whatever you need to bring and come with us"

"But-but I"

"If we could march all the way over here you can march a couple miles"

"…fine then, Da-Ming get our stuff ready"

"What stuff?"

"Our weapons and tools and rope and you know, _our stuff_"

"We have weapons but I don't know about any tools and rope and stuff"

"*sigh* fine, then just pack our weapons"

"We have our weapons on us"

"…fine then, let's go"

A couple of miles turned out to be much longer then Chin had thought. Apparently Tigress had a different definition of a couple, to Chin a couple miles meant two to three miles. But to Tigress it meant they were going to hike for a really long time way the hell out in the middle of no where.

"Er…Boss?"

"Yes Da-Ming?"

"Are we still going to be looking for that treasure?"

"Not so loud you stupid blaggard, yes we're still on a treasure hunt, we've just left base a little earlier then expected. But don't worry a little greasy hair on your head, when the tkme comes we'll give 'em the slip and find that treasure."

"Oh good…er?"

"What is it now?"

"Just wondering, what's the next riddle?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"So we know where to go"

"Oh yeah… good point, ahem-

Where waters are black

A house was erect

Now old and cracked

It stands above the neck

Hmmm that one's a puzzler"

"What are you two talking about?" Viper asked as she looked back at the two rats.

"Er… Da-Ming has a…_bad rash_?"

"…oh"

"We were just…er…"

"That's okay, really no need to explain"

That method usually worked, you didn't need to explain it, people just didn't want to hear about someone else's rash (Unless they were a doctor of course) and so of course they didn't sk any more questions.

Finally, the sun had risen up in the sky, it was really quite beautiful, the fields that surrounded them seemed to be covered in a rich golden glow, and the mountains off in the distance seemed regal and majestic. And then, up ahead of them, was the ocean. The waters glimmered as if the sun itself had ground up a million gemstones and sprinkled them over the pristine waves. The all too familiar smell of sea salt gave Chin a sudden feeling of nostalgia, he had to stop for just a little bit to catch himself before continuing with the others. Eventually they made it to a small port town.

Tigress led the group towards a house, there was a hole where one of the windows should have been.

"This is the scene of one of the most recent thefts" said Tigress

"Hmmm" said Chin examining it.

"Well?"

"Lets see here… the damage could've been done to the-"

"Why don't you check out the inside as well" suggested Viper "That's were all the stuff was stolen from"

"…oh, yeah okay then"

Chin entered. The house was a mess. There nothing of value inside. There on the floor by the window was something red. Chin picked it up.

"A flower petal? Most interesting. Does this flower grow anywhere near here?"

"I don't think so" said Viper "I don't know much about flowers, I cant even tell what type of flower that's from"

Chin continued to search the house.

"Do you think we should've hired someone?" Mantis whispered to Monkey "I cant see why we couldn't try to solve this mystery ourselves"

"Its what Shifu wanted, besides he's a funny little guy"

"Funny?"

"Yeah, look at the way he cringes whenever Tigress is around, it's hilarious"

"Well" said Chin "I cant find any further evidence, besides this one flower petal, where can I find out about flowers?"


	4. Chapter 4

The local botanist was a small elderly rabbit wearing a pair of small spectacles. Chin placed the petal in front of him.

"What flower does this petal come from?"

The botanist picked up the petal carefully and examined it for a while.

"I can't say I know. But if you allow me some time I might be able to identify it, I'll have to look through some of my scrolls, it certainly is beautiful however, and if I may I would like to purchase this petal from you"

Chin liked money, but money would have to wait. He needed to find out about whatever flower that petal came from, otherwise the Furious Five might get mad at him.

"Evidence I'm afraid" said Chin "Just find out what type of flower that is and I'll get back to you"

"Any luck?" Tigress asked Chin as he walked out from the building.

"We'll see, he has to examine it first"

"Any idea of how long that'll take?"

"Er, no" Chin cringed immediately after saying "no" fearing that Tigress would be mad for whatever reason. He still was having a hard time believing that the Furious Five was not, in fact, kicking his ass. He was also surprised that he was actually helping them.

Much to Chin's relief Tigress seemed calm.

"Very well" she said "We'll have to come back later"

Tigress got up and began to walk away, then she stopped and turned around to look at Chin.

"Well?"

"Er…well what?"

"Aren't you coming?"

"Where exactly?"

"We're going to a restaurant"

"Oh…"

"I assume you are hungry?"

"Well…er, now that you mention it"

Tigress walked off with Chin following behind.

When they reached the restaurant the Furious Five and Chin's gang were already there. Chin took his seat, it was between Viper and Bai-Ling. While Tigress was the one he feared the most, Viper was the one he felt comfortable around, she usually stopped hitting him when he was on the ground and he appreciated that, besides he clearly remembered times when Viper actually apologized for hitting him so hard.

After the motley group of bandits and warriors had enough food in them they began to joke around a bit and enjoy themselves.

"So" began Chin "Why exactly do you need me? I know that I'm the only intelligent bandit you could get, that part goes without saying, but why do you need a bandit to help you investigate?"

"It wasn't our idea" Tigress answered "Shifu decided that it would help us to have a criminal"

"Someone who can think like other criminals, you know, get inside their heads" Mantis continued.

"These thefts are ingenious, no one really knows how they work or what's happening. All we've heard is that colorful clouds come and things go missing. And since you are the smartest bandit we know we figured you'd be able to solve this case" said Viper

Chin liked it when they described him as "The smartest bandit they knew" it made him want to solve this case, not just to avoid a beating, but because he thought he could. This whole event changed from Chin being forced into the service of the Furious Five to Chin solving a great mystery.

"Well I uh…" Chin couldn't think of anything to say, it never occurred to him that the Furious Five might compliment him and he was rendered speechless for the moment. It took Chin a while to fully realize what was going on. He was sitting at the same table as the Furious Five, he was helping them, they were complimenting him and, most importantly, they weren't beating him up.

"You just led us to those thieves" Po began "And we'll take care of things from there"

Po stuck his fist out suddenly mimicking a Kung Fu move. Chin jumped in surprise.

"I'll be all like Waaaaaahiiiii!" said Po as he struck another move.

"Po"

"Then I'll be all wAaAaa!"

"Po"

"And then I'll go Shoppabooie!" Po shouted do a move while jumping in the air

"Po!"

"Then I'll go-"

"PO! You're making a scene!"

"…oh" said Po as he became aware that several customers were looking at him.

"…So" said Crane "What did you find out about that petal"

"I have a botanist taking a look at it, I'll go see if he's found out what flower it came from"

"It's very curious sir, but I haven't discovered what flower it comes from, I've searched my entire library and I haven't found a single petal that matches it."

"Blast!"

"I'm sorry for your troubles"

"What'd he say?" Da-Ming asked

"He couldn't identify it" said Chin.

"So we're at a dead end then?" Mantis asked

"Unfortunatly"

"There was nothing else interest in the house?"

"Nothing but dust, untouched furniture, and this bloody petal"

"What now?"

"Er… I guess I could think up some suspects or something. I might be able to get more answers that way"

"Why don't you talk to the witnesses?"

"The witnesses? Oh yeah! Of course! Where are they?"

"There's one of them now" said Mantis pointing to a rabbit.

Chin approached her.

"Ahem. Excuss me ma'am"

"What do you want?"

"I understand your house was robbed recently"

"Yes and?"

"Mind telling me exactly what happened?"

"*Sigh* like I told those guys over there" said the rabbit pointing at the Furious Five "Me and my husband where asleep when this big cloud of red broke through our window and started flying all over the place, we ran out and came back to find all our valuables gone!"

"I see"

"Its horrible! They took all my best clothes and jewelry!"

"Ah well if you could-"

"-now all I'm stuck with is this secondhand jewelry, look it only one ring has a gemstone!"

"…oh"

"And this dirty old thing I'm wearing" said the rabbit who was wearing a very expensive looking outfit "Its all I have left, well this and some of the other clothes I carry with me, but the gemstone on the ring doesn't even go with this! Its horrible"

"…right, was there anything weird about this red cloud?"

"What the hell are you talking about? The whole thing was weird! It was a red cloud that came and stole my stuff! Just ask my husband it was awful! Isn't that right?" said the rabbit as she slapped her husband on the chest.

"*sigh* _yes dear_"

"See! Go tell them to hurry up and get my stuff!" said the rabbit motioning towards the Furious Five.

"Thank you for all your help" Chin growled as he walked away.

"Well?"

"That rabbit was about as helpful as a boulder tied to a swimmer's feet!"

"No luck then"

"I've been around long enough to know people, I'll think up some suspects then we, er, I mean you can go after them. We might find more clues that way"

"How will that work?" asked Mantis "How'd do we know they have anything to do with this?"

"Well we might as well, it's a blind shot but it might lead to clues"

While Chin did bring up a good point, he had some other intentions, mostly old enemies that he wanted to see get beaten up by the Furious Five.

"Fine you do that"

Da-Ming waited for the Furious Five to leave Chin.

"What's the plan boss?"

"Well I've been thinking about that riddle and I think I know where it leads"

"Where?"

"Where waters are black"

"And where is that?"

"Where are the waters blackest?"

"Uhhhhh"

"Waihai island you idiot! We'll head to Waihai under the pretense of looking for suspects then we'll find the spot the riddle talked about and ditch the Furious Five and go looking for the treasure!"

"Ohhh you're a clever one boss"

"I know, prepare yourself Da-Ming, we're going to Waihai"


	5. Chapter 5

The waters around Waihai island were dark, possibly the darkest waters in all China. A small bat slowly made its way to the island of pirates.

"So this island" said Tigress "It's filled with pirates?"

"Er…yes" said Chin

"And we're here to look for suspects?"

"Yes"

"So we're looking for criminals on an entire island of criminals?"

"Well…er…there's a good chance the criminals we're looking for are here"

"And how will we find them?"

"Easy, we'll find some other criminals to er… _rat_ them out"

Chin didn't like using that phrase. He was a criminal but that didn't mean he was okay with people assuming rats were a bunch traitors. Rats were in fact very loyal (As long as they're paid that is)

"What makes you think they'll work for us?"

"Er… you could, you know, threaten them"

"Just leave them to me!" Po said "They'll be awed by my Dragon Warriorness!"

"Land ho!" Da-Ming shouted

The tiny boat crashed into the shore.

"Da-Ming!"

"I said Land ho sir!"

"You're supposed to say that when you see land! Not right before we crash into it!"

"Oh sorry sir!"

"Just get down here before I swab the decks with your hide you mangy excuse for a rat!"

Da-Ming slid down the mast.

"So this is Waihai" said Bai-Ling who'd heard many stories about the pirate island from Chin "It's even dirtier then you described it"

"Alright everyone follow me, I know a few guys who might be able to provide some information"

Chin and the group of assorted animals began making their way up the cold rocky beach and into one of the many pirate towns that crowded the small island. The island itself was amazing looking, at one point, millions of years ago it had been the tip of some huge mountain. Now after years of water erosion it looked like a rotten tooth, twisted, dark and all filled with wholes and gaps. The island itself was actually bigger at the top then it was at the base and was all covered in dense foliage.

Chin, his gang, and the Furious Five made their way up creaky wooden stairs into a ramshackle town, most the town looked like it was made from drift wood and salvaged ship pieces. The town stood half way over a cliff overlooking the dark swampy waters below, a series of poles and rigging were the only things keeping it from crashing into the black waves.

The wet, rotten wood boards squeaked and creaked under Chin's feet as he entered the town. All sorts of animals were busy moving to and fro, carrying crates and carts of stolen goods and preparing small boats. The boots were kept far above the water by rigging, hooks, and winches, lowered only by those ready to set sail. Sailing itself was difficult, to the east of Waihai were many sharp rocks and swirling whirlpools and rogue waves. To the west there was a peninsula from the mainland. Any merchant ships that tried to avoid the rocks would have to sail between the two landmasses where they'd be ambushed on both sides by viscous pirates.

Chin was walking past one of the many buildings when he suddenly stopped. His keen rat nose picked up a scent. A scent that he hadn't smelt for years, something very familiar, yet he couldn't put his finger on it. Then suddenly he remembered.

"What is it sir?" Bai-Ling asked cautiously

"That smell… that could only be"

Chin didn't wait to finish he looked up at the sign that was hanging above the door and entered the building. Bai-Ling looked at the sign, it read "Fang Feng's kitchen"

It was a small, dark restaurant, there were only four tables and a single lantern. Chin approached the counter.

"I'll be right with you" came a gruff yet feminine voice from the kitchen.

Chin's gang crowded around him, curious of what had made their boss so excited. Then from the kitchens came a elderly rat woman. Bai-Ling couldn't put her claw on it, but there was something eerie about her, she knew she'd seen that face somewhere before. The rat woman gave Chin one look and gave a squeal.

"Chin!" she squeaked grabbed the one eyed rat and hugging him.

The rest of Chin's gang backed away, no one ever really gave Chin a hug before. Chin, surprisingly, remained calm. But more surprising then that was what Chin said next.

"Hello mother"

It took Chin's gang a few seconds to conceive what he said, then it took them longer to get over the initial shock.

"Did you just say _mother_?"

"Yeah, she's my mother, where'd you think I came from?"

Chin's gang never really thought of Chin's past, they just sort of assumed he just appeared one day, they never thought of him as the type of person to actually have a mother.


	6. Chapter 6

"Oh its my little Chinie, here to visit his old mother" Fang Feng exclaimed practically choking her son " Now who are these?"

"There my gang mother"

"You call that a gang" she said releasing Chin "When I was your age I had a gang twice as big as that! And who are they?"

"That's the Furious Five mother"

"Well they don't seem that Furious to me, what happened to you! your face! My little boy's a Cyclops!"

"I'd rather not delve into that mother"

"Oh watch your tongue, you used to tell me everything! In fact I remember when you were little, you came running in, tears in your eyes crying about some bullies"

Chin shuddered.

"Awww" Bai-Ling said.

"Chin was bullied?" Da-Ming asked, Da-Ming wasn't very bright (You should know this by now) and saw Chin as being a very tough inidivudal.

"Of course he was" said Fang Feng "He was the runt of the little, he used to be such a little mother's boy that all his siblings teased him"

Chin was temporarily isolated in his own little ocean of embarrassment. Bai-Ling giggled.

"In fact I remember this one time when one of his brothers tied him upside down by the tail and used him as a punching bag, he cried himself to sleep that night, the poor little devil, *sigh*they grow up so fast don't they"

Chin became painfully aware of the snickering going on. Chin would've given his own tail for a load of gunpowder and some matches at that moment.

"Aw and would you look at that, you still have your father's old hat…throw that dirty thing away"

"What?"

"Its old and worn, go throw that away"

"But it was dad's hat"

"Oh you never even met him, now throw it away its dirty"

"But it's kinda my thing, that and the eyepatch, it's my image"

"Well get a new thing, one that's new, and not so battered"

"Mother I am a adult now"

"Oh fine, but don't come running to me if you get lice from it"

"I've been wearing it since I left the swamp"

"Don't you talk back to me, little rats that talk back to their mothers have their tongues swell up"

"I don't believe in that anymore mother"

"I'm sorry for interrupting" said Crane "But we have an investigation to do"

"an Investigation? Is my little Chin a detective now?"

"No I'm a bandit"

"Good, just like I raised you"

"Mother do you know of any er…clouds of fire?"

"Clouds of fire? No I havn't heard of any such thing"

"Alright then thank you mother, but we have to be going now"

"Already?"

"I'll visit" said Chin as he hurried everyone out the door.

"If any of you lot even mentions what she said I'll flay you and hang your skins up to dry before you can even blink!" Chin hissed to his gang

"Let's t


	7. Chapter 7

(Authors note: I do apologize for the abrupt ending to the last chapter, I was very sleepy and forgot that I hadn't finished the chapter and thus uploaded it as it is, I have since learned my lesson of not uploading chapters when I am very sleepy, anyway this is the rest of the chapter)

Chin, his gang, and the Furious Five asked questions all over the small town, but to no avail. Finally they settled down and had dinner in Fang Feng's restaurant. Chin's mother used this opportunity to tell even more embarrassing baby stories about Chin, all the while the one eyed rat was trying to hide under his hat.

"Of all my children Chin was always the messiest, he didn't eat his food so much as smearing it all over his face"

Bai-Ling couldn't help but coo, while everyone else was snickering she was intently listening. She had never expected her boss to have been such a cute baby.

"He was picky to, I tried telling him, you live in a swmap you gotta eat what's in front of you, if we're eating crocodile we're eating crocodile"

"You ate crocodiles?"

"Only the ones that tried to eat us"

"Oh"

"Here's a baby picture of my little Chinnie" said Fang Feng holding up a small piece of paper with a painting of a tiny rat wearing a rice hat that was far too big for it. "I'm surprised he still has that bloody old hat"

"Awwww Boss you were such a cute baby" Bai-Ling cooed.

"Yeah what happened to him?" Mantis Snickered.

Underneath his hat Chin shuddered.

"Oh take that bloody hat off and talk with your friends"

"*sigh*Yes mother"

"And stand up straight. Stop mopping!"

"Yes mother"

Chin felt that any respect he had was being lost at this very moment.

"And eat your vegetables, don't just pick around them like that"

"Yes mother"

Bai-Ling couldn't help but smile. Here was her boss, Chin, a viscous one eyed rat bandit, being scolded by his mother for not eating his vegetables.

"Naughty little rats that don't eat their vegetables lose all their little whiskers" said Fang Feng as she shook her finger at Chin.

"I have good reason not to believe that Mother"

"Don't you talk back to me or it's time out for you"

"Mother I am an adult now"

"Oh I'm sorry Chin, it's just that I'll always remember you as my little momma's boy" Fang Feng said giving Chin's cheek a pinch.

Just then a boar entered the restaurant, Chin thought he looked familiar. The boar made his way to Chin.

"Message for you" the boar grunted

"Message?"

The boar slapped him.

"Thank you for the lovely flower.

With love Liu Lu Pan"

"Liu Lu pan? …Oh that leopard"

As abruptly as the boar entered he left.

"I think we might have a new lead" said Chin with a smile.

The motley group of animals left the restaurant and began making their way to the fortress of Liu Lu Pan.

"Back at the restaurant" Chin began "None of that happened do you understand me?"

"What didn't happen?" Monkey asked, a smile on his face.

"You know damn well" Chin hissed.

"Okay okay" Monkey Snickered.

"It's just that we didn't think you to be the momma boy type sir" said Bai-Ling

"I'm not, because what happened in the restaurant didn't happen Bai-Ling, if I have to remind you again I'll do so with the point of my sword"

"Er… sorry boss"

"Good, now lets just focus on the task at hand"

"You were a cute baby though"

"Bai-Ling"

"Sorry, sorry"

"Now as I was saying, Lets focus on the task at hand and ask Liu Lu Pan about this flower petal"

"Got it momma's boy" Mantis snickered.

Chin sighed. If it wasn't the Furious Five that was making fun of it he would've attacked them by now, but since it was the Furious Five the only thing he could do was punch Da-Ming, which he did.

"Ow!"

"Shut up Da-Ming"

"Yessir"

"It's not that funny is it?"

"It kinda is sir" said Bai-Ling carefully.

Chin glared at her.

"Its just that we didn't think you'd still have a mother, you know, because you're kinda old an-"

"Kinda old? What do you mean Kinda old?" Chin turned around so suddenly that Bai-Ling flinched, thinking he would strike her. "How old do you think I am?"

"Er… somewhere between late forties and sixties?"

Chin stopped.

"_I'm Twenty Eight_"

Bai-Ling's jaw dropped.

"…oh"

All the snickering had ceased,

"_sixties_?"

"Late forties or sixties"

"Do I really look that old?"

"Well your beard is kinda long"

"And you kinda look dirty…kinda"

"A bath wouldn't hurt" Viper added

"Maybe a haircut to, it looks like you have permanent bed head"

"You also kinda smell I bit funky" Po added.

"Arlght! Alright! Task at hand! Task at hand!" Chin threw his little arms in the air. "Unbelievable! Bloody unbelievable these guys" he muttered to himself as walked on.

"Twenty Eight can you believe it?" Bai-Ling whispered.

"He was old looking when I first met him" said Da-Ming.

"Just when you think you know someone"

(Okay this is the real ending to the last chapter, again sorry, I don't intend to do anymore author's notes in the future so don't get used to them, I know everybody else does them, but I for one don't)


	8. Chapter 8

Author's note: I know before I said I wasn't planning on doing any more author's notes, but, surprise, I'm doing one. I just wanted to inform everyone reading (If anyone is reading this) that tomorrow is my birthday, and instead of relaxing and celebrating I'm going to work. I've decided that tomorrow I'd upload each one of my stories at least once. Basically my gift to myself is work, I hope you blaggards appreciate all the bother I go through for you.

I'm uploading some chapters today but I'll be uploading much more tommarow.

"Sir?" Bai-Ling whispered

"Yes?"

"Aren't we gonna, you know, look for that treasure? That riddle said black water and above the neck and everything, aren't we gonna do anything about that?"

"Patience, my bat patience"

"But what are your plans?"

"We go to Lu Liu Pan, she knows a lot about flowers, we find out about this bloody little petal, the Furious Five leaves, we stay on Waihai"

"But what if she doesn't know either?"

"Then you just leave that to me"

Chin , his gang, and the Furious Five reached Lu Liu Pan's fortress on the other side of the island. It was fortified by makeshift walls and defenses, many of which were bamboo spikes and bits of salvaged wood from ships. There were two boar guards out front. Chin approached them.

"I have Business with Liu Lu Pan"

"Yeah, so do half the pirates here, your gonna need a number"

"What?"

"A number, you gotta wait, Lu Liu Pan is a busy leopardess buddy"

"Just tell her that Chin would like an audience with her"

"I'll try"

The boar walked into the fortress. A few minutes later he came out.

"Her majesty will be seein' you now"

"Her majesty?" Bai-Ling whispered.

"Just humor her, from what I heard she's incredibly vain"

"Ah"

They entered. The hallway was studded with bits of stolen gold and marble, various statues and vases lay about haphazardly. Then they came to the throne room. Lu Liu Pan was sitting on her throne. The Leopardess was dressed in rich (but stained) silks. There was far too much make up on her face and she had more jewelry on her person than a hundred jewelers had in their shops together. She had an elegant fan in her paw, it had edges that seemed to shine in the sparse light.

"Ah" she began "So you are the one eyed rat Chin? I must thank you for your lovely gift, the Southern Rain Orchid is a rare flower indeed"

"I understand you know much about flowers"

"That I can say I do, is that what you're here for? Or are you just gracing me with your presence?"

"I need to know more about this flower" Chin said as he held up the petal.

"Ah, but let us not worry about such things now, you are my guests and I'm sure you are famished"

"Actually we just ate"

Behind him a boar snorted. Chin noticed there were many boars in the room, all with weapons. And up above were some vultures scowling down at them, gripping the rafters and poles with razor sharp talons.

"I'm sure you are famished" Lu Liu Pan repeated.

The Furious Five got into various fighting stances.

"No no no, we're hungry"

"I'm not" said Mantis

"I am" said Po

"Shhh" Chin whispered "Just humor her, we need to find out about this flower!"

Tigress sighed "Very well"

Tables and chairs were brought forth and so were various platters of food. They were seated.

"I can't thank you enough for your gift Chin" Lu Liu Pan said with a fanged smile "Now please enjoy your meal, I believe you've earned yourself a substantial reward" she said as she fluttered her eyes at Chin.

Chin ignored her.

Po devoured most of the food before him, while Chin poked at it suspiciously with his chopsticks.

"So Chin, do you have any reward in mind? Anything that you _desire_?"

"Just information on this flower petal"

"Just a flower petal, not, say, a evening with the most beautiful woman on Waihai?"

"No"

Chin looked down at his plate, then turned to Bai-Ling.

"Bai-Ling" Chin whispered "Is she, er… _flirting with me?_"

"No, I think she's just teasing you"

"Ah"

"Or she could just be really bad at flirting" Viper added.

"Well what do I do to make her stop? It annoys me"

"well-"

"I'm sorry, am I boring you?" Lu Liu Pan asked as she scowled at them "Do you not enjoy my hospitality?"

"We've just came to learn about this flower petal"

"Very well then, give it here"

Chin handed her the petal. Lu Liu Pan examined it closely.

"I don't know what flower this is from" she said nonchalantly

"Well that's just great, thank you for the food but we must be going." Said Chin as he stood up.

Lu Liu Pan stood up as well. A feather from one the vultures floated down from the ceiling. With a careful swing of her fan the feather reached the floor in two pieces. Chin began to notice how sharp the fan's edges were. Chin sat down, his little pink fingers feeling the small metal tube that was his sleeve arrow.

Tigress growled.

"Bai-Ling" Chin whispered

"Yes boss?"

"Remember when I said that if Lu Liu Pan didn't know anything about the flower ?"

"Yeah"

"Just stay there and get ready to run"

"Got it"

"She's threatening us" Chin whispered to Tigress (It took awhile for him to work up the courage needed to do so)

"I can see that"

"Are you gonna take that?"

"Chin are you instigating?"

"…No"

"Don't try anything Chin"

"I wouldn't dream" said Chin, while his tail slowly made it's way around Tigress's Chair and wrapped itself around a bowl.

Suddenly a bowl of bean curd came flying from where Tigress was sitting. Lu Liu Pan ducked just in time for the bowl to shatter just overhead. Snarling Lu Liu Pan got to her feet.

"Attack!" She bellowed.

"Now!" Chin hissed.

Chin and Bai-Ling got up and ran as the Furious Five and Lu Liu Pan's gang collided. Chin and Bai-Ling had just made it to the door when Chin realized his gang wasn't there with him. He rushed back and pulled Da-Ming out of the chair.

"Come on you idiots let's get out of here!"

Chin and his gang ran out the fortress, knocking some guards over in the process, and into the dark night. When they had run for a good amount of time they stopped to catch their breaths.

"Where waters are black

A house was erect

Now old and cracked

It stands above the neck" Chin repeated to himself.

"That one doesn't even sound like a poem" Bai-Ling said

"What?"

"It sounds like, you know, a riddle, how could anyone mistake that as a poem?"

"I don't know, that's not the point here"

"I know but, its just that poems are supposed to sound pretty, that just sounds confusing like a riddle"

"Shut up Bai-Ling and help me find whatever it is we're looking for" Chin snarled.

"Well I guess we're looking for a house then" said Bai-Ling

"Please, if we were looking for a house it wouldn't say house, it's a riddle not directions"

"What about that" said Bai-Ling as she pointed at an ancient stone temple, now crumbling to pieces.

"Bai-Ling that's a temple, not a house"

"But it's a house to the god's"

"Yeah well…oh, clever girl"

"But what about that above the neck stuff?" Da-Ming hazarded

"Look for yourself Da-Ming" said Chin as he pointed to the head of an old stature that lay just beneath the temple. It was a huge dog head with a noble expression on its face. It stood there like a makeshift cornerstone staring at them.

"That's not a neck, it's a head"

Chin sighed "Da-Ming what is above the neck?" Chin asked in the sweetest voice he could.

"…a scarf?"

"Not a scarf you idiot! Above the neck! Above the neck! It's a head you moron!"

"Oh…sorry boss"

"*sigh* lets just check out the temple"

Chin and his gang made their way to the ancient stone building. It stood on the Eastern coast of Waihai, overlooking the ocean. It had been abandoned long before the pirates captured the island. Thieves had already stolen most of the treasure that could be found here, and the pirates after them stole everything else. There was nothing in the temple but walls, rubble, and statures too big to carry. A hundred different types of moss and mold grew inside the temple alone, while the outside was covered in vines and creepers.

At the eastern wall of the temple was the carving of an eye. It was too recent and crude to be part of the temple, but old enough to have been there in Hao Mai Wong's time. In the middle of the pupil there was tin hole, no bigger than a pin prick. Chin looked through.

The hole went all the way through the temple wall allowing him to look out into the ocean. There, far off in the distance was a very small island that could easily be mistaken for a rock if it weren't for the tree growing from it.

"That's where we need to go" said Chin to himself "All right you mangy blaggards it's time to find ourselves a boat"

"We could use the one we came on" Da-Ming offered

"Good idea Da-Ming, lets go!"

It had just started to rain. Chin sniffed the air.

"There's gonna be a storm soon, we'd better hurry"

"How can you tell?" Bai-Ling asked

"Because he's half ship rat" said Da-Ming

"How does that ma-"

"Ship rats can smell a storm coming from miles away, you wouldn't understand with your pitiful nose bat, now lets hurry"

The gang ran through the island's thick foliage to towards the boat. But just as Chin's luck would have it the Furious Five appeared.

"Chin!" Tigress growled.

"Bugger" Chin squeaked "Run!"

Chin and most of his gang practically leapt into the boat while Bai-Ling slashed the mooring with her claws. With an efficiency only sheer terror can produce Chin had the sails lowered and the small boat on it's way before the Furious Five even made it to the beach. Unfortunately for Chin, that was the same time the storm struck.

It came suddenly, wind and rain pelting the small boat while waves rocked it back and forth to the point where it was practically on its side. They were close to the opposite shore when it happened. A huge rogue wave, awakened by the storm, came from underneath their boat and propelled it forward. The boat was smashed onto the beach and Chin was sent propelling towards a tree. His head made contact then everything went black.


	9. Chapter 9

Authors note: Since today is my birthday I've decided instead of being lazy I'm going to be productive and uploaded chapters to all my stories at least once. (Ps, If you don't plan on doing author's notes don't say that you aren't going to do them, because I keep finding myself doing author's notes)

"Chin? Chin! Sir! Wake up boss!"

"Wha-whuzzit!"

"You okay sir?"

"…My head hurts"

"That's because you hit it against a tree"

"Bugger"

"Can you stand up sir?"

"Yes, Da-Ming get over here I need someone to hit"

"Yessir- Ow!" said Da-Ming

"Shut up Da-Ming"

"Yessir"

"So what are our plans sir?" Bai-Ling asked

"Er… we find another boat and head out to that island with the tree, er after we wait a bit, the Furious Five will probably be looking for us, actually we should probably find some place to hide"

"Got it boss"

"er…let's go that way" said Chin pointing vaguely up coast.

The gang slowly made their way up the beach. Chin's head was throbbing, he could feel a large bump just pulsing on his crown. Eventually they found their way from the beach into the nearby woods. As they hiked further inland it began to get colder. The further north they got the more heavy the fog was, and the more marshy and wet the ground was. The leaves of the trees dripped with heavy rain drops and cold puddles covered the soft ground.

Then they saw her. Up ahead of them was a rabbit walking towards them. She was dressed in very simple but feminine clothing and wore thick leather shoes. She stopped in front of them.

"This path is closed" she said, she had a mean look on her little round face as she eyed Chin and his gang.

"Tough" said Chin taking a step forward.

Before hit foot even touched the wet mushy ground the rabbit was in front of him.

"This path is closed" she said again, this time with a snarl.

"Why is it closed?" Bai-Ling asked

"To keep Riff raff like you out" the rabbit said looking at Chin.

"You don't seem to understand" said Chin "We're busy, you're in our way, kindly move, or I'll move you myself."

The rabbit glared at him, and didn't move.

"Perhaps you don't know who I am, I am Chin, I'm a bandit, I'm armed, you're not, move"

"Perhaps you don't know who I am" said the rabbit "I'm Wu Bang, and no bandit has ever gotten past me"

"Is that a challenge?"

"No, it's a warning"

"Very well then" said Chin drawing his Kan Dao "This is the last time I'm telling you, move"

The rabbit didn't move, well, she didn't move out of the way, she in fact moved towards Chin. The rabbit leapt from the ground, and it was then that Chin noticed that, on the bottom of her thick leather shoes, were blades, very sharp blades at that. Before Chin would even react Wu Bang made a sudden kick, then she landed right in of him. a second past, Chin's long mustache was cut in two, two long black hairs were lay before him.

Chin touched his face.

"MY mustache! Oh you'll pay for that rabbit!"

Chin charged Wu Bang, within second she kicked him in the stomach with the two of her shoes. The kick knocked the air out of Chin as he fell to the ground. How could someone kick that hard?

Wu Bang kicked again, this time hitting him in the face with her toes. This knocked Chin backwards.

"No bandit ever gets past me" said Wu Bang triumphantly, although she still kept her scowl.

Chin slowly got to his feet.

"Right that does it, you're dead! You're bloody dead!"

Chin took out his sleeve arrow, but before he could fire a dart at Wu Bang she did a sudden kick. The sleeve arrow was neatly sliced in two.

"Blast!"

"This path is closed"

"Buggery!"

"Leave now"

Grumbling Chin and his gang left.

"Sir?"

"Don't worry Bai-Ling, I've got another plan"

"What?"

"We go around her"

"Oh…that's not much of a plan, it's actually kind of the obvious solution"

"Bai-Ling?"

"I know I know, shut up"

"Yes. Anyway you didn't let me finish, there's obviously a village or shrine or something there she's protecting"

"And?"

"When we sneak around her, we'll pay a little visit, and maybe score ourselves a bit of treasure"

"You sure that's a good idea boss?"

"What do you mean?"

"What if she catches us?"

"We'll just have to be extra careful, come on you blaggards, all quiet-like you hear?"

"Yes sir!"

"Aye aye cap'n!"

"Yes boss!"

"Shhh! I said quiet-like! Quiet-Like!" Chin hissed as he began to tip toe his way around Wu Bang.

Slowly but surely the gang stealthily made their way around Wu Bang. The rabbit was busy scanning the area ahead of her to notice the rats. It also helped that rats were incredibly sneaky by nature. Bai-Ling, as well, silently flew overhead.

At last they had made it past Wu Bang. And there, some ways ahead of them, was a small building. At one point it might have been a house, but now it looked like a makeshift fortress. The lock on the door was no match for Chin's ingenuity AKA his sword. The ancient wooden door swung inward and rusty hinges. There was nothing in the small room but shelf upon shelf of scrolls.

Chin picked up a random scroll and looked at it.

"Lets see here…bloody hell!"

"What is it sir?"

"It's the bloody Rabbit Scrolls!"

"What?"

"The scrolls that list all the most well kept secrets of the rabbits! Secret rabbit Kung fu moves, secret rabbit medicines, secret rabbit military tactics, Secret rabbit meditation chants!"

"Wow"

"This is where they were hidden! All these years they've been hidden away in a dingy old shed!"

"Hidden?"

"Years ago a group of bandits raided the City of rabbits, or so I heard, and the sages and librarians took all the sacred scrolls and hid them away somewhere! This most be the place! I cant believe Wu Bang didn't see us! What luck!"

"Actually" said a familiar voice from behind them.

"Bugger"

"Put down that scroll before I have to teach another lesson"

"Alright, alright I'm putting the Scroll down" said Chin and he turned around to face her.

Chin let the scroll drop, it landed near his tail, which lay on the floor like a pink snake.

"Now leave"

Chin and his gang left. It was only when the gang were out of the fortress that Wu Bang noticed that Chin's tail was wrapped around the scroll he had dropped. Wu bang chased after them. As soon as she got outside though, they were gone. She spun around wildly before running off in some direction. As soon as she was gone Chin and his gang crept down from the roof and made their way in the opposite direction with their prize.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's note: Here's another chapter as part of my birthday mass upload. I have to get to work on the other ones, sorry if it's taking too long, I'm getting a bit distracted (Damn you Minecraft)

Anyway here's chapter 10

After a while Chin and his gang found their way into a field. Snow was just beginning to fall leaving little white piles of slush everywhere. Chin stopped and sat on the nearest (and driest) rock and began reading the scroll.

"What secrets can I learn from this?" Chin said to himself as he read the scroll.

"What does it say sir?" Bai-Ling asked

"Let's see… oh blast"

"What?"

"Out of all the scrolls I could've grabbed I had to grab this one!"

"What does it say?"

"It's a bloody table of contents!"

"What?"

"A table of contents! A bloody table of contents! It doesn't teach me any secrets it just lists the secrets in order!"

"An entire scroll? A table of contents cant be an entire scroll"

"It bloody well can be, the rabbit scrolls is one of the largest known collections! And this is the table of contents for the whole bloody thing!"

"Oh"

"Bloody hellfire!" Chin exclaimed as he threw the scroll.

"Don't worry Chin-I mean boss, you still have that treasure to look forward to"

"You're right Bai-Ling, time to stop wasting time and find ourselves a boat!"

Chin jumped to his feet.

"Come on you louts! Let's go!"

"Yessir"

Within seconds Chin and his gang were on the move again. they practically ran through the field until they came to a river.

"Lets follow the river, it will lead to the ocean and we might find a port town where we can get a boat" Said Chin

The gang made their way down river. Eventually they came to a very small town just off the coast. There by the dock was a small boat. In the middle of the town's harbor was a single jagged rock sticking out from the sea, a long pole and lantern had been attached to it to act as a lighthouse.

Chin walked up to the little boat. There, drawing in a fishing line, was a goat. She was dressed in very coarse clothing. Chin waited a while.

"Ahem"

The goat turned around.

"What do you want?"

"I'm sorry to bother you, but we're bandits, I'm a bit of a pirate as well, we're after some treasure might we use your boat?"

"This a joke or something?" the goat asked gruffly.

"No, I'm just trying to be polite, now let us have your boat before we have to –"

The goat suddenly head butted Chin. The one eyed rat fell over with a loud "Oof!"

"Get off my boat you rapscallions!" the goat bellowed

"We could've done this the easy way you know" said Chin standing up

The goat head butted him again.

"Don't think that you can beat me I'll-"

The goat head butted Chin once more.

"Right that does it-"

The goat head butted Chin for the fourth time.

"Okay, we'll just …let you keep your boat then, I'm feeling generous today" said Chin as he stepped off the boat, unfortunately do to the considerable brain damage Chin walked off the wrong side of the boat and fell into the cold water with a loud splash. The goat merely shrugged and got back to back drawing in the fishing line.


	11. Chapter 11

Chin found himself alone in the middle of a dark bamboo forest.

"Da-Ming? Bai-Ling? Cheng? Dong?" Chin called, but no one answered "Hello? Where are you guys?"

Then, somewhere in the forest, a twig snapped. Chin spun around. There, in the shadows, two glowing red eyes glared at him. Chin gulped. With her position given away Tigress leapt out at Chin. Chin watched in sheer terror, unable to move, as the angry Tigress fell upon him.

Chin woke up with a loud squeak of fear waking his gang as well.

"What is it sir! Is everything all right!" Bai-Ling asked

"Y-yes, yes, everything is fine, just fine" said Chin who was still shaking

"Did you have another nightmare?"

"Yes"

Chin became aware of a warm wetness in the general area of his pants.

"Er"

"Boss did you… you know what, again?"

"Shut up Bai-Ling"

"Yessir"

It was till dark out, Chin and his gang were sleeping under a n abandoned dock in the small port town. They had yet to find a boat.

"We need to get away from here as quickly as possible!"

"Why?"

"Don't you understand! The Furious Five will be, well, furious! They're probably tracking us down as we speak! Especially that… _Tigress_, she'll have my tail as a belt for sure!"

Meanwhile.

"So , do you think we should go after him?" Mantis asked

"I don't think so, even with Chin we weren't any closer to solving this mystery" Tigress responded

"But he did start that fight"

"We'll get him for that later, but right now we have more pressing business" said Tigress as she stood up and began walking "Let's go, I've heard there was another theft recently"

"Well let's get a boat then and set sail"

"Yeah, yeah let's do that, in fact let's do that right now, right this instant, the Furious Five could be here any minute now" Chin scurried out from beneath the docks and scanned the harbor "Let's take that one!" said Chin pointing to the nearest boat.

"But sir, that's that one that belongs to that goat" said Da-Ming

"Don't care!" Chin squeaked suddenly "A goat isn't as bad as a tiger!"

"Chin- I mean sir, maybe you should calm down a bit, you seem kinda jumpy"

"Shuttup Bai-Ling! You'd be jumpy to if some homicidal tiger wanted to murder you!"

"Sir it was just a nightmare"

"Don't care! Don't care!" said Chin as he scurried near the boat, it appeared as if his primal rodent instincts had taken over his sense of logic.

Chin peered into the boat, the goat was there sleeping on a mat.

"Shhhh" Chin hissed at his gang "Help me move her"

Chin took one side of the mat, Da-Ming took the other, and slowly they lifted the Goat out of the boat and onto the dock. Throwing caution to the wind, Chin and his gang hastily boarded and sailed off. The sun had just began to rise when the goat awoke. The first thing she noticed was that she wasn't on her boat, the second was that her boat was sailing off into the sunrise.

"I'm going to kill that rat" The goat growled.

The small boat made its way slowly, but surely, towards their destination. In just a couple of hours they past Waihai island and where at the tiny island to the east. There they came upon the single tree growing from the salty wet soil. There was a hole in the tree. Chin reached in and removed a tiny key.

"Bai-Ling, read the next riddle"

"O beautiful North breeze

In mountains of white

Where shadows move as they please

And take flight"

"Very well then" said Chin "Mountains, North, and white, so we're looking for some snowy mountains somewhere up North…ah I think I know of the mountains it speaks of"

"Really?"

"Where shadows move as they please, Shadow Mountain!"

"Shadow Mountain?"

"Yes, I remember hearing about it a while back, locals avoid it, they say it's cursed."

"And?"

"And we don't believe in curses do we?"

"You sure this is a good idea?"

"Of course it is, now all we have to do is make our way to Shadow Mountain!"

Chin and his gang boarded the small boat and sailed northward up the coast until they could see a mountain rising up from a forest nearby. Chin jumped out from the boat.

"This must be Shadow Mountain!"

"How do you know?"

"Because it says so on the sign" said Chin pointing to a small wooden sign.

"Oh, that was quick"

"Of course, the riddles lead us in a clear path, otherwise we'd just be hiking all over China for no bloody reason, Hao Mai Wang knew what he was doing, there has to be something on that mountain we need."

"If you say so"

Chin and his gang began making their way up the mountain. Thick blankets of snow lay covered their path as they hiked up the mountain. They finally made it to the shore of a small lake, nestled in-between the snowy mountain slopes, many pine trees grew around it. It was near dark when they set up camp, unaware that they were being watched.


	12. Chapter 12

Chin and his gang sat around the camp fire eating the little provisions they had, mostly rice. Chin couldn't shake off the feeling that he was being watched. Every once in awhile he'd glimpse fluttering shadows as they flew silently overhead, but as soon as he looked they'd be gone. It was very cold.

Then as soon as the fire began to dim they struck. Dark shapes came hurling towards the camp. They attacked so quickly that the fire was put out. Chin's gang was suddenly engulfed by a swarm of flapping shapes as they grabbed at the little food they had and grabbed at their weapons. With his rice flail Chin managed to knock one of the figures to the ground. Chin had his foot on its chest before it could get away.

Chin looked down. There, under his foot, was a yellow house bat dressed all in black. As soon as his eyes adjusted Chin was able to make out the shapes of bats as they swarmed around his gang. With his flail he swatted many away. Having stolen the viscous gang of bats flew off, leaving the yellow house bat, who was still on the ground.

Bai-Ling looked surprised, besides her family she'd never seen other bats, she had never even realized that there were different species of bat, let alone that many species.

"Those were bats!" she exclaimed

"No Bai-Ling they were just furry birds-of course they were bats! Bats that stole our food!"

"I've never seen that many bats before! I've never seen any bats before!"

"Bai-Ling please, now you" said Chin looking down at the bat under his foot "I've got some questions for you"

"What makes you think I'll answer them?"

"Tell me… er whats your name?"

"Xiao"

"Tell me Xiao, have you ever eaten bat stew?"

"Er…no?"

"Oh it's delicious, you see, all you need is a bit of garlic, some broth, and a bat, one around your size I believe"

"You don't scare me rat"

"Then let me tell you how the bat is prepared"

Bai-Ling and the rest of Chin's gang were unable to make out what Chin was saying, but judging by the expression on the bat's face, it was incredibly detailed.

"Now" said Chin "Are you willing to talk? Because I can hear my stomach growling"

"Ask away" the bat squeaked

"Who are you?"

"Xiao?"

"No, your gang?"

"Oh, we're called the five thousand shadow wing gang"

"Five thousand!" Da-Ming exclaimed

"Yes"

"So there's five thousand of you?"

"Oh no, the gang goes back ages, it started off with Five thousand"

"So there isn't five thousand of you?"

"…no"

"How many of you are there exactly?"

"Look I'm not going to tell you that, Changchu would kill me"

"I see, Da-Ming get the pot ready"

"A little less than one hundred"

"And who is this Changchu you mentioned?"

"Where is your location?"

"That big cave on the mountain over there" said Xiao as he pointed across the lake.

In the distance there stood a mighty mountain, the opening of a cave was just visible in the dim moonlight.

"That cave?"

"Yes"

"Excellent, get your gear ready you lot, we're gonna teach these blaggards why you don't steal from rats!"

"It was just food"

"Quiet you"

"Sir?" said Bai-Ling

"Yes?"

"Could we, er, go a bit easy on them…because they're bats and all"

"What are you talking about now?"

"Just, I've never seen a bat outside my family, and well, since I'm a bat, do you think we could, you know, not hit them too hard"

"Shut up Bai-Ling, oh and get some rope, we're taking Xiao with us"

"Why me?"

"Because we don't want you flying off and warning your gang now do we? Bai-Ling rope"

Reluctantly Bai-Ling brought a length of rope to Chin who immediately tied Xiao's wings together behind his back.

"Let's move!"

Chin and his gang marched around the lake shore, slowly making their way towards the cave. After a while Chin sat down on a rock.

"Alright you lot, take a quick rest, Bai-Ling go on ahead and scout for us, tell me if you see any other bats"

"Yessir"

Bai-Ling flew ahead, as she was flying she became aware of a large dark shape flying above her. Suddenly a large bat with raven black fur swooped down upon her knocking her into the bushes. As soon as she stood up she found herself looking face to face with a great evening bat, the same one that had knocked her down.

"I see the rat has Xiao"

"Er…yes"

"And I see the rat has you as well"

"What do you mean?"

"I assume that rat has captured you? Were you not escaping?"

"Well no actually, I was scouting…er looking out for other bats actually"

"What a shame, a bat betraying her own kind"

"Its not like that" Bai-Ling said defensively

"Oh really then? Then what are you doing in the company of rats?"

"Well you see-"

"I bet he doesn't appreciate you"

"Who?"

"The rat"

"You mean Chin?"

"So Chin is his name, such scum"

"Look, I've been gone for too long, he'll be looking for me so you better back off"

"Why do act as if I am threatening you? I want to help you"

"Really?"

"My name is Changchu, I'm the leader of the five thousand shadow wing gang"

"Oh!"

"You shouldn't be traveling with rats, you should be with us bats, why don't you join my gang"

"I'm happy in Chin's gang thank you very much" said Bai-Ling as she turned around, but as soon as she did so Changchu was in front of her again.

"Does he respect you?"

"Er… well not exactly"

"Does he appreciate you?"

"Well-"

"Does he treat you well?"

"Kind of, I guess, look would you just go away"

"Bai-Ling! Where are you! You bloody bat!" Chin shouted

"Farewell _Bai-Ling_" said Changchu as he flew off "Just remember, the Five Thousand Shadow Wing gang will be open to you"

"There you are you lout!" Chin exclaimed "Well? Did you see any bats?"

"I…no, no I didn't"

"Good, then we still have the element of surprise"

The gang continued onward. Soon they were at the base of the mountain, it was still night. They began marching up the rocky slopes of the mountain.

"Alright here's the plan, we offer Xiao here in exchange for the food they stole from us, then as soon as we have the food we go in there a rough them up, if we're quiet enough we'll get to them before they can get their paws on any weapons, everyone understand?"

"Yessir"

"You got it boss"

"What about you Bai-Ling? Bai-Ling?"

Chin looked towards Bai-Ling, she was staring up at the night sky, deep in thought.

"Bai-Ling? Bai-Ling!"

"Huh!"

"Stop day dreaming and listen to me!"

"Oh, I'm sorry sir I was ju-"

"I don't bloody care! Did you hear what I said?"

"Er… _yes_"

"Really now? Care repeating it to me?"

"I uh…"

"Just as I thought"

"I'm sorry sir"

"Never mind that! Just go scout ahead, I want to make sure there aren't any bats watching us"

"Yessir"

Bai-Ling flew off, but stopped when she was out of Chin's sight. She sat down and thought for a while, then she stood up again and took flight. Instead of flying back to the gang, however, she flew straight for the cave.

"Where the hell is she!" Chin exclaimed "She's been gone for ten bloody minutes!"

"I thinks he's up at that cave sir, I saw her flying towards it a while ago" said Da-Ming

"Da-Ming?"

"Yessir?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"…you didn't ask sir"

Chin slapped Da-Ming.

"Ouch!"

"Shuttup Da-Ming!"

"Yessir"

"Come on you blaggards! March!"

Chin drew his sword, then he and his gang (and Xiao who was still tied up) ran up the rocky path towards the cave.

"You'd better have an explanation Bai-Ling" Chin muttered to himself "For your sake you bloody bat!"


	13. Chapter 13

"I'm pleased that you've decided to join the Five Thousand Shadow Wing gang Bai-Ling" Said Changchu "You will no longer be subjugated by that filthy rat, you may now live here among bats, among your own kind"

"That's very nice of you" said Bai-Ling "It's just that…well"

"Well what?"

"You're not going to hurt him are you?"

"Chin? That rat?"

"It's just that, well he's been my boss for so long, could you…er… not hurt him?"

"I cant make an promises, why would you want him unscathed? Was it not he that kidnapped you from your home?"

"Well I kinda wanted to go to"

"That does not matter, I'm your boss now and now you will get the respect you deserve, I can give you anything you want"

"Well that's nice-anything?"

"Anything"

Chin and his gang waited outside the mouth of the cave.

"Its no doubt that Bai-Ling has told them of our plans, now we've got to think up a new strategy"

"I have an idea!"

"Shut up Da-Ming"

"Wait! Just listen! We dress up as bats an-"

"Shut up Da-Ming"

"*sigh* yessir"

"I've got an idea, but I'll need your help Da-Ming"

"Really?"

"Yes, in fact my whole plan revolves around you"

Chin and his gang approached the cave (They had left Xiao bound and gagged behind a rock) as soon as they got to the cave entrance a large bat confronted them. Before the bat could say a word Chin pushed Da-Ming into him and ran through.

"Now!"

The inside of the cave was full of bats. Chin ran through screaming and swinging his rice flail around taking many of them by surprise. Chin ran straight through the cave until he came to a deep gorge. A old wooden platform stood in the middle of the gorge, atop it was a very tiny hut. There was a rickety wooden bridge leading towards it. Chin ran across the bridge and kicked open the door. there was Bai-Ling, and a great evening bat with black fur. The hut was filled with bags and chests, gold gleamed and glittered.

"Bai-Ling" Chin growled "I swear if you are not trying to kill this blaggard I'll-"

"Bai-Ling works for me now Chin" said Changchu "She has had enough of your subjugation"

"Subjugation? The bloody hell are you talking about?"

"She is with her own kind now"

"Bugger that!"

"Unlike you, in shall appreciate her, unlike you I shall protect her, and unlike you I shall respect her!"

"Bai-Ling?"

"…sorry sir-I mean Chin, er… you're not my boss anymore, sorry"

"You dirty traitor"

"I'm sorry Chin, it's just that…well he was very convincing"

"Enough!" Changchu commanded "I will not tolerate your presence here"

"Give me all you've got you black furred blaggard" Chin snarled as he drew his sword.

Changchu flew at Chin, delivering a kick to the head causing Chin to stagger backwards. Before Chin could recover Changchu gave him another kick, causing him to drop his sword. In a fit of rage Chin leapt at Changchu and even managed to get a few hits before the large bat flipped him over and grabbed his tail in his mighty feet. Gripping Chin Changchu flew through the cave and out into the valley.

"So long Chin" Changchu chuckled as he dropped the one eyed rat.

Luckily for Chin, his fall was broken by a tree branch, then another, then another, then another, and then another. At last Chin was safe (If bruised and sore) at the bottom of the tree. It took a while, but eventually Chin stood up. His whole body ached. Chin took one step forward, got tripped by a rock and knocked himself out.

"You didn't hurt him did you?" Bai-Ling asked

"Of course not, I let him go in the woods"

"Oh good, I'm not too big of a fan of violence, I never told Chin this but I really hate seeing someone get hurt"

"Of course, do not worry, we here are peaceful bats, in fact I'd never harm a fly…er except for supper of course"

"What?"

"You are a fishing bat, you eat fish, I am not, I eat bugs"

"Eww"

"Never mind that, come with me, tell me what you desire"

"Well nothing at the moment"

"Nothing?"

"Not really"

"But I can give you anything you want, look around you, every bat here is happy and content, what ever you desire I can give you"

Bai-Ling looked around, there were many bats with gold jewelry and fancy silk clothing, but she couldn't think of anything she wanted.

"Well… I'll tell you if I think of something I want, I'm just content being here for the moment"

"Of course, you may stay in my hut if you like, until I can arrange a proper living quarters, now make yourself at home, I'll be back later"

Bai-Ling sat back on a chair and thought for a while, she couldn't shake off this strange feeling that something was wrong. She tried telling herself that everything was better here than it had been when she worked for Chin, but the more she thought about it the more she realized that Chin had treated her the same as everyone else in his gang, if not slightly better. Things hadn't really been that bad in Chin's gang, things had actually been fun. Fun, unlike that old house she had lived in before. That was before Chin found her, before Chin took her into his gang (at sword point).

She had staged elaborate scare tactics to keep herself safe from burglars and robbers, and that had been fun at first, but soon less and less people showed up and the old house where she lived had become something of a prison. She had been bored. Bored, that was it, she was bored. When she was with Chin she was out treasure hunting, exploring, meeting people, but now she was bored.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea" Bai-Ling said to herself

Chin woke up, it was night. He rubbed his sore head as he got to his feet.

"Blast" he mumbled

A twig snapped up ahead, Chin instinctively reached for his sword, but it wasn't there.

"Bugger! I must've dropped it at the cave!"

Then, coming out of the bushes, was Chin's gang.

"There you are boss! We've been looking all over for you!" Da-Ming exclaimed

"You have?"

"Yeah since we saw that big bat carrying you out of the cave"

"Really now"

"Yeah, we fought real good sir! But there was a lot of them and they pushed us out, oh and they also rescued Xiao"

"*sigh* oh well, if that blaggard wants Bai-Ling he can have her, she's a bloody traitor anyways"

"You sure?"

"Yes I'm sure! Are you questioning me?"

"No sir!"

"We didn't need her anyways, she couldn't fight and she sure as hell didn't bring me any good luck, I didn't even want her in my gang anyways, I just felt sorry for her" said Chin as he walked away "Come on you guys, lets get out of here, we'll search for the rest of the treasure later"

"Sir?"

"What?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine"

"You sure? You don't sound very angry"

"What do you mean?"

"You just sound kinda sad and grumpy instead of being angry"

"*sigh* shuttup Da-Ming"

"Yessir"

Walking helped Chin think, he'd gotten used to Bai-Ling. He remembered all the times she helped out, and it was nice to have someone intelligent to talk for a change. He missed her. She was so trusting, she considered him her friend. He remembered the night he discovered her, he was the first one to find her, to bring her out of that house of hers. It wasn't fair, he had dibs on her. Then he started thinking about Changchu, he took Bai-Ling from him, and that made him angry, and the more he thought about it the angrier he got. Then Chin stopped.

"That blaggard" Chin muttered

"Sir?"

"That dirty blaggard!" Chin shouted "He tricked her into joining up with him! he took her from me! He dropped me onto a bloody tree! And now I'm going to tear his wings off and make them into a blanket! Come on you louts! We're gonna get that Changchu bastard and we're gonna get him good!"

Chin ran back towards the cave, then he stopped, grabbed a very large stick, then started running again. he was going to teach Changchu a very important lesson, you don't steal from Chin.


	14. Chapter 14

Bai-Ling sat in the small hut with Changchu. Before her, on a makeshift table, were multiple delicacies. This was perhaps the richest dinner Bai-Ling ever had, but she couldn't help but feel bad for abandoning Chin. she had been so eager to be with other bats that she forgot all the good times she had with Chin. She had been so excited by the prospects of meeting up with her own species that it was easy for Changchu to talk her into joining him. And now she couldn't leave, Bai-Ling was nothing if not timid and she didn't want Changchu to be mad at her.

Changchu himself sat across from her.

"Tell me Bai-Ling, have you ever eaten such a meal before?"

"Er…no not really"

"I always treat my bats well, you are welcome to all the luxuries I can offer, and that is a lot"

Suddenly there came a knock at the door. Changchu got up and opened the door. as soon as he did so he was met with Chin's fist.

Changchu staggered backwards clutching his nose. Chin smacked him over the head with a large stick, and then he gave another swing. One of Changchu's teeth flew from his mouth onto the floor. Before Changchu could even react the one eyed rat grabbed him and gave a viscous kick to his groin before giving him a mean right hook to the face. Then as soon as the bat was down Chin gave him a couple of kicks to the gut. Then he looked up at Bai-Ling.

"Bai-Ling get over here now! We're going"

"Chin!"

"No I'm Chin's identical twin brother-of course its me you idiot!"

"Bai-Ling isn't going anywhere" Changchu said as he got up "She's sta-"

Bai-Ling flew over to Chin's side.

"What the!"

"Er… sorry Changchu…its just that, well, I kinda like Chin better"

"But but he subjugated you he kidnapped you! he isn't a bat!"

"I think I'm actually okay with being subjugated by Chin"

"But I can give you anything! Can Chin do that!"

"No, but that's actually why I like him, with Chin you have to work a bit, but its worth it, not like here"

"But but-"

"I really shouldn't have come here in the first place" said Bai-Ling "Its just that I wanted to meet other bats really badly and…well, I got a bit carried away, anyway I think I'll just go with Chin, sorry"

"You'll do no such thing" shouted Changchu jumping in front of them "Bats to me!"

"We already took care of them" said Chin

"What!"

"Turns out they weren't expecting a counter attack, so it was kinda easy, now out of my way you membraned blaggard!" said Chin as he pushed Changchu aside.

Chin and Bai-Ling walked across the bridge to the rest of the gang.

"We finished tying up the rest of them sir" said Da-Ming

"Good"

"Oh and Xiao wants to join our gang"

"Xiao?"

"Er hello" said the yellow house bat nervously

"What can you do?"

"Er… I can fly"

"We have a flyer"

"Oh… well I can…er, I'm kinda good at making chopsticks"

"…why not welcome aboard"

"Now what sir?"

"What do you mean Da-Ming?"

"What do we do now?"

"I don't know…leave I guess"

"Aren't we gonna rob the place?"

"…Da-Ming"

"I know I know shut up"

"Thanks for reminding me, actually"

"Oh"

"Come on I saw a bunch of gold over in Changchu's hut!"

Chin kicked open the wooden door and began rummaging through the bags of gold. Changchu began to protest but Xiao socked him in the stomach. Chin held up a gold coin an examined it. He sniffed it a bit, then he rubbed in on his shirt. The gold paint came off to reveal a rusty old bronze coin underneath.

"Knew it" said Chin as he threw the coin away.

"Bloody fraud"

"Penniless blaggard"

"I…well" Changchu began, but then Chin pushed him over.

"Hey what's that?" said Chin pointing to a small chest hidden under some of the bags.

"Wait! Leave that chest be!"

Chin opened it, there was a piece of paper rolled up and bound with ribbon. Chin unraveled it.

"It's a map! A treasure map! Da-Ming read the next riddle!"

"O' where is the map that leads

To thy desires

In the stream that feeds

The lake amidst mountain spires"

"Where'd you find this map Bat?"

"I'm not telling you"

"Xiao get a pot, its time to teach Changchu here how to make bat stew"

"Alright! Alright! I found in a chest behind a waterfall!"

"This is it then! This map is what leads to the treasure!"

"But sir there's more riddles"

"Read them later, let's get outta here"

Chin and his gang left the cave and Changchu behind. And soon were out of the valley and on the other side of the mountains.

"Looks like there's a town nearby" said Chin staring off into he distance "We can stay there for a while then go off in search for the treasure later"

"You got it boss!" said Bai-Ling "And I promise I'll never leave your side again!"

"Good an- oh…er hello"

There were two large looking Rhinos standing in front of Chin.

"Chin? Do Chin?"

"Er…yes?"

"You're under arrest"


	15. Chapter 15

"Arrest!" Chin exclaimed, he immediately reached for his sword, but it still wasn't there.

"There is a bounty for you in more than several provinces"

"B-but I"

One of the rhinos grabbed Chin and held him up.

"You have the right to remain silent"

"Da-Ming! Dong! One of you guys do something!"

"I said you have the right to remain silent!" the rhino snorted as he carried Chin away"

"What about them! You just take me an' leave them?"

"They don't have bounties"

"B-but I was working with the Furious Five, they hired me! Find them they'll tell you ! they need me!"

"Quiet you!"

"I'll be back!" Chin called to his gang "I'll get out, Bai-Ling you're in charge while I'm gone!"

"Quiet!"

"Oof! Alright! Alright, I'm cooperating, keep your hands off me, hold the gang til I get out Bai-Ling!"

The gang watched as the rhinos carried Chin off, they were frozen. Chin had never been arrested before, and quite frankly, they had no idea what to do.

"Er…" Was all Bai-Ling could say.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"You're in charge now"

"Oh…I uh… fancy that"

"So what do we do?" Xiao questioned

"We uh… think up a plan to break Chin out of prison"

"Good, what jail are they taking him to any ways?"

"…oh, well I uh…crap"

After a hour of walking Chin was brought before a large stone edifice located on a cliff above the ocean.

"Welcome to your new home" one of the rhinos snorted "Shu Long prison"

"Looks lovely"

"Wait til you see the inside"

"Okay I got it!" said Xiao as he flew down towards the rest of the gang "A villager said there was a prison nearby called Shu Long, it's just off the coast a little ways north of here"

"Wonderful!"

"Problem is Shu Long is infamously well guarded"

"…oh"

"It has the second largest stash of defensives after Chor Gom"

"Oh… that's unfortunate"

"Don't worry Bai-Ling, I'm sure you'll think up a plan! Chin put you in charge for a reason" said Da-Ming with a smile.

"I should hope so, without Chin we'r…we're…er, _planless_"

Chin was brought into a stuffy little room. There in front of him was a rabbit with a long beard and an official looking outfit, sitting at a desk. The rabbit looked up.

"So you are Chin"

"Yes"

"I am Fai, I handle things around here"

"So you are the warden?"

"No, the warden is very busy, I take care of things around here, now tell me Chin, do you wish a trial?"

"What do you mean wish a trial?"

"We find that if a criminal pleads guilty, then there is no need for a trial, it would just be a waste of time, and time is something we cannot waste here at Shu Long, now what is your plea? "

"I'd like to say innocent, but no doubt you have evidence that would contradict this"

"Indeed we do"

"*Sigh* then I guess I'll plea guilty"

"Excellent, thank you for making this quick, we've got several pirates due in a few minutes, let's see here" said Fai as he rummaged through some papers "Ah, it says here that the sentence is twenty years"

"Twenty years!"

"Oh I'm terribly sorry, I misread that"

"Oh good"

"It's actually two hundred years"

"What!"

"In this province we take crime very seriously Mr. Do"

"B-But two hundred years! I'll be dead before I even finish serving time!"

"Well then let that be a lesson, crime doesn't pay"

"But I'll die in here!"

"Well maybe you should've thought of that before you became a criminal"

"This is bloody stupid!"

"Let's keep things civil Mr. Do, our methods may seem cruel, but I assure you that they stop any prisoner from committing a crime again"

"I-I…"

"Enough, Take him away"

Chin was dragged off into another room where he was stripped of his armor and his remaining weaponry. A bucket of cold water was thrown at him. The one eyed rat was drenched with freezing cold water.

"Gah! What was that for!"

"To wash you off, you're filthy"

"You no good blaggard! You've got to warn someone before doin-"

A set of rags were thrown at Chin cutting him off.

"Put those on"

Mumbling Chin dressed himself in the rags. Luckily for him they let him keep his hat. Then another rabbit stepped into the room, he was covered in armor.

"I'll take over from here boys" said the rabbit

"Yes captain Hung" the rhinos snorted as they left.

"So you're Chin"

"I am"

"You're a bandit aren't you? A bandit boss?"

"Yes?"

"I'll be frank with you; I might be inclined to help you out, if you help me out"

"Help you out how?"

"Easy, in my line of work I've come to know that bandits often keep stashes of treasure hidden away somewhere, you tell me where yours is, and I might be inclined to look the other way for any incidents that may or may not involve you, understand?"

"Even if I had a stash I would share it with you, you long eared git"

Hung scowled.

"Fine then, be that way, welcome to Shu Long" said Hung as he took Chin's belongings. "I'm sure there is enough loot here to hold me over for now, but sooner or later you'll talk, they all talk"

Chin was then escorted to his cell, it was small, cramped and damp. He wasn't alone. Sitting on the top bunk was a large crocodile.

"Welcome to Shu Long" the crocodile said with a toothy smile "I'm sure you'll love it here"

"Shut up reptile" said Chin as he examined his bed. It was nothing more than some damp straw over wooden boards. An assembly of rags lay on top of it.

"They spared no expense I see"

"What? This place? Ha! The warden spends all the money on guards and fancy stuff, we don't see none of it here"

"Well that's just great"

"So what you in for rat?"

"I'm a bandit, a fierce one too"

"What a coincidence so am I"

"You don't say?"

"You ever hear of the Black Water Fang gang?"

"Black water fang gang… oh yeah, you we're those crocs that took down whole ships full of treasure!"

"Exactly" said the Crocodile with a touch of pride

"Is it true that you once took down a warship with two hundred armed soldiers?"

"It's as true as the sea is salty"

"Oh it's an honor" said Chin shaking the croc's claw.

"M'name's Yao-Dao, pleased to meet'cha"

"The name's Chin"

"Chin you say? What gang you from?"

"Well we've never decided on a name, but we're as viscous as any other gang"

"I think there's some folks in here looking for you, say they're gonna get some one eye rat"

"Well I do have a lot of enemies"

"Is one of them a leopard? By the name of Lu Bao?"

"Yeah that's one! He's here?"

"He is, was real clear on what he was gonna do, lots of details"

"Blast!"

"There's some others here too you might know, a couple boars, a wolf, a few yaks, and a toothless komodo dragon"

"They all sound vaguely familiar-did you say toothless Komodo Dragon?"

"Yeah, we can't understand what he says, we just call 'im mumbles, 'cause all he does is mumble, but when that leopard started talkin' 'bout you he joined right in"

"Him I'm not afraid of, a Komodo without it's bite is nothing"

"Enjoy your stay at Shu Long Chin, 'cause this place will be your grave"

"Not if I get out"

"Ha! No one gets outta Shu Long, many've tried"

"And what happened to them?"

"Let's just say after watchin' the cleanin' crew get to work, none of us were gonna attempt what they did"

"I see"

"Better get used to this place Chin, or it'll be the death of you"

"Okay I've got a plan! We dress up as guards and sneak in, find Chin and let him out!"

"How are we going to get the armor? All the guards wear very special armor"

"Oh…"

"We'll get him out don't worry, Chin wouldn't give up would he?"

"I give up!" Chin exclaimed.

He had grown tired of trying to gnaw his way through the bars and threw himself onto the bed.

"I told you they had strong bars here" said Yao-Dao

"I hope at least my idiot gang is doing all right"

"Yeah me too"

"What?"

"My gang, they were the biggest bunch of idiots I've ever seen in my life"

"Finally someone who understands! You give them a set of plans and do they follow them? No!"

"Exactly, those bunch o' idiots are why I'm 'ere"

"They didn't even try to help me when those guards came and hauled me away! Bunch of lazy, backstabbing, cowardly, gits!"

"Ha! You should see the crap my gang's put me through, you ever heard of the Ying bi?"

"Yeah that was that treasure ship that exploded!"

"You know why it exploded?"

"They said it was because someone had a candle too close to a cargo of fireworks"

"Yeah well guess what actually happened"

"You don't mean?"

"Yep, the idiots blew up the whole ship by accident! All the treasure gone! Just like that!"

"My gang, they're a finicky bunch, especially this bat, Bai-Ling, She's nothing if not fickle"

"Ha! Women"

"Yeah, first she goes off and joins this bat gang because apparently their leader talked her into somehow"

"Really?"

"Yeah, but it only took her a couple minutes and next thing you know she's left me and joined up with those other bats!"

"You don't say"

"And it didn't take her any time joining back up with me! She just says 'oh I got caught up in the moment! I just wanted to see other bats and I forgot how great you were' r something like that, bloody fickle bat, I bet she's rejoicing now that I'm out of the picture"

"Okay! Okay! Think! Think!" said Bai-Ling as she hit her head repeatedly "We can do this we just have to figure out a plan!"

"Why don't we hide in the rice that's being delivered and once we're inside we can pop out and rescue Chin!"

"Yes but how do we get out of the prison?"

"Oh…bugger"

"Okay, okay so then I walk out, and the whole place is in flames!"

Chin erupted into a fit of laughter, Chin's laugh was something that was rarely heard, and frightening to those that heard it. It didn't sound like how laugh should sound, a laugh usually made people feel welcomed, while in Chin's case it made people bolt for the door. It wasn't so much a laugh as a psychotic series of giggles.

"Hold on! Hold on!" said Yao-Dao"So I walk out, the entire place is in flames, the entire place, except for the floor, and there 'e is, just standin' there tryin' to hide a torch behind 'is back!"

Chin had another fit of giggles.

"*sigh* any way I flogged 'im good for that one, he went from bein' green to bein' blue!"

It took a while for Chin to wipe away the tears in his eyes.

"That's a good one, I can't remember when I've laughed so hard"

"Don't worry" said Bai-Ling "I'm sure we'll get him out of there, It'll just take awhile, but we'll get him out"


	16. Chapter 16

Author's Note: There is a Big Lebowski reference in this chapter, can you find it?

Tigress knelt down at the site of the latest theft. She picked up something small and examined it.

"Any luck?" She asked

"Same story, red cloud" said Monkey "You?"

"Look at this"

Monkey sidled closer.

"A Cocoon?"

"That's not a cocoon, that's a chrysalis" said Mantis picking up the dusty shell in his pincers.

"What would that be doing here?"

"I don't know, but I think we're on to something"

"Do you think it's time to call Chin back in?"

"I'd think so"

"Where are the guards?" Chin asked as he entered the large courtyard.

"They're guardin' the way out, once you're in they don't care what happens to ye, it's just part o' the punishment" said Yao-Dao "You've gotta watch yer back 'ere"

Chin cautiously stepped forward. The Courtyard was full of fierce looking animals, boars, yaks, wolves, crocodiles, and even other rats. No one paid much attention to him, Chin looked just like any other prisoner. Unfortunately for him there was someone who recognized him.

A huge, muscular leopard pushed his way through the crowd of prisoners.

"Chin" he growled

"Oh hello Lu Bao, fancy meeting you here" said Chin, barely concealing his terror

"When I'm done with you, you'll have a face resembling your eye"

"Pardon?"

"It'll be gone!"

"Oh! Er… I whipped your sorry tail before you blaggard don't think I wont do it agai-"

Lu Bao kicked Chin into the air. Before he hit the ground he was kicked again sending him flying across the courtyard. Chin crashed head first into the wall then fell down right onto a table where a large wolf and a boar where playing a game of Go. Black and white stones scattered everywhere. The wolf snarled as he lifted Chin up by the scruff.

"Eep!"

Chin was tossed into a crowd of prisoners who were gathered around a fight. A snow leopard had just beaten a yak and was looking for another opponent. Chin landed in front of him. Chin didn't even see the fist as it collided with his jaw and sent him stumbling backwards, only to get pushed back towards the snow leopard. The fight only lasted a minute, and when the crowd dispersed Chin stumbled forward. Dazed and dizzy get accidently bumped into a boar, he pounded him on the head.

Chin was down. Yao-Dao looked down at him.

"I see you've gotten a Shu-Long welcome"

"I hate this place"

"Don't we all"

"I've asked everyone I could find" said Mantis "No one can tell me where Chin is"

"He's probably hiding somewhere"

"I've heard he stole a boat in some port town not too far from here" said Viper "But no one could say what direction he went"

"Where is this port town?"

"A few miles up coast from here"

"Then lets go…Po what are you doing?"

"Oh! I was just checking for Chin in these dumplings" said Po, bits of pastry smeared over his face. The Sheep that ran the stand Po was rummaging through scowled.

"Ah don't worry there Mr. Do, I got a beatin' me first time 'ere"

"I am going to kill Lu Bao"

"I'm sure you will"

"I am going to kill him, make a bowl from his skull, and use it as a chamber pot"

"You'd be surprised 'ow many times I've 'eard that"

"Yao-Dao do you have a shank that I could borrow?"

"I got several"

"Excellent" said Chin as he picked up the small, razor sharp blade.

Yao-Dao assumed he would pocket the blade until he came to Lu Bao, but instead he used it to start sketching in the dirt.

"Whatchu doin then?"

"Planning"

"Look no one's eva escaped 'ere afore"

"Has anyone tried?"

"Not affa we seen what they did to the last ones"

"Were they idiots?"

"Well…yeah I think so"

"Well there you go, idiots try to escape, they get caught, but if a genius tries to escape-"

"I wouldn't try nuffin 'ere Chin, yer lucky to still be alive, Shu-Long's a rough place to be"

"It's worth a try" said Chin as he scribbled a crude map of the prison in the dirt.

"Okay here's the plan, Da-Ming you and Cheng get into a fight in front of the cart, when the pig's distracted Xiao and I will fly in a steal some food for us"

"You got is miss Bai-Ling!"

The white bat flew to the top of a building and watched. Cheng and Da-Ming got in front of the food cart and began fighting, or at least it was supposed to be fighting, it looked more like bizarre dancing.

"Oh boy street performers cried a sheep who was pacing by. Soon a crowd was gathered around the two rats, several coins were tossed at them. Even the gruff pig who was operating the cart came to look at them. Bai-Ling swooped down and grabbed as many dumplings as she could before arching gracefully in the sky and landing atop a building.

"We're doing alright for ourselves" Bai-Ling mused to herself, this was a rare feeling for her, confidence.

"Hello Chin" said captain Hung with a smug smile.

"What do you want?" Chin scowled

"Oh I just wanted to thank you for your lovely gift"

"…What gift?" Chin asked cautiously

"This lovely little treasure map" said Hung as he waved the scroll in front of Chin "I'm off for vacation in a few weeks, I'll be sure to put this map to good use"

"…You-"

"Thank you so much Mr. Do, it really means a lot to me"

Chin pressed himself up against the bars.

"I'll kill you! You dirty long eared blaggard! Bloody lapine bugger! I'll floss my teeth with your whiskers!"

Captain Hung laughed and gave Chin a viscous prod in the stomach with a staff.

"I'd love to stay and chat, but I've got arrangements to make"

"After I'm done with you I'll have a romantic relation with your mother you dirty no good blighter! I'll I-I"

Chin sunk to the damp floor.

"Map?" Yao-Dao asked

"Long story" said Chin

"That Hung is a bastard aint 'e?"

"All the more reason to break out of here" Chin snarled

"Good luck with that"

Chin started sketching again. suddenly there was the sound of water. Chin looked up.

"What was that?"

"Don't know, but I've 'eard the guards got pipes for bavin' an' washin' n' stuff like that"

"Pipes you say?"

"Its just a rumor"

Chin rubbed away his previous schematics and started sketching some new ones.

"Pipes" Chin mused "Pipes will do just fine"

"Guys I've been doing my own research about who can be committing the thefts!"

"Not now Po"

"No no just listen. It's Master Hyena, she coulda used her Five Point Fire Breath Strike!"

"Po master Hyena has been incarcerated for two years now"

"Oh okay then, Master Hyena's sister F-"

"Shhh! Some one's coming"

The Furious Five stopped in their tracks. A small figure scurried out in front of them. The five took their battle stances, but then they saw that it was just a bunny.

"Help Bandits!" the bunny screamed

"Oi Chin, Chin! Oi! Wake up Cyclops!"

"Whusset?"

"You shouldn'ta stayed up that late Chin, you don't want to fall asleep out in the courtyard, its dangerous"

"Uhhhhh"

"Oh bugger, 'ere comes Lu Bao! Chin?"

"*snore*"

The muscle-bound leopard lifted Chin up.

"I aint done with you yet Chin I'm going to-"

"*snore*"

"Wake up!"

"Wha? Oh bugger!"

"I'm going to strangle you with your own tail once I rip it off your butt you miserable little sewer rat"

"Ship rat" Chin corrected automatically, then quickly covered his mouth.

"Are you correcting me?"

"No! no I wasn't I was jus-"

"You're correcting me again!"

"No! wait! Oh bugger"

Lu Bao slugged Chin in the face. There was a noticeable THUD when his fist came into contact with the one eyed rat.

"I've spent too long in this place Chin! I'm going to enjoy this" said Lu Bao, drawing his claws.

"Too long? I beat you only a couple of years ago"

"What? Are you correcting me again!"

"Hold on hold on! That statement doesn't work. If you had been here for twenty, thirty, hell five years that would've worked, but you've only been here two years. Is two years that long? No, in fact you would've probably been released by then if this was a normal prison"

"Oh shut up, I've been waiting for the moment for a while now"

"What that's the only thing you came up with in two years?"

"Hey shut up rodent! Its better than when you said "You can't Win against the Chin" "

"What the bloody hell are you talking about? That bloody worked!"

"It did not, it sounded forced and stupid, as does that stupid catch phrase you used"

"What? You mean, The Year Of The Rat Has Come Early? What's wrong with that? That's bloody clever!"

"What are you going to say when it's actually the year of the rat? The year of the rat has come? That's not clever that's just announcing the new year!"

"Oh shut up! I need a bloody catch phrase! It makes me seem badass!"

"Badass! Ha! You couldn't look badass if you were sitting on a pile of fallen rhino foes on a volcano! You want to see a big bad bandit you look at me!"

"I'm just as fierce as you and twice as feared, and thrice as smart!"

"Twice as feared! Chin you're a scrawny little one eyed ex-pirate! You're so skiiny I could use you as a toothpick! You inebrite, inebratin-"

"Inebriated?"

"Thank you, you're inebriated! You should just stick to petty crime, and leave stuff like banditry to the big boys…oh and I almost forgot"

Lu Bao dropped kicked Chin. The rat crashed into a wall and slid down greasily into the dirt.

"Lu Bao's gonna get it before I leave, that blaggard gonna get it good!"

A boar went flying through the air. He crashed against the burnt wooden frame of one of the many buildings, now reduced to charred skeletons by the bandits. Bunnies fled left and right while the tusked brutes charged in, toppling everything they could and chopping down what they couldn't topple. Mantis grabbed one by the bristles, swung him over his head and threw him into the oncoming hoard. They toppled over like nine pins being hit by a bowling ball.

While that was going on Viper was handling some of the boars that were tormenting the owner of an antique shop. One of them, a rather crude boar, took the liberty to "Relieve his bladder" on an antique rug, much to the shop owner's distress.

"He peed on my rug!" the poor old rabbit shouted.

Viper did an elegant maneuver in the air. The boar was down. And with a couple of well timed strikes the other boars in the shop were down as well. Tigress was outside the shop beating off the boars. Pigs flew everywhere. Her strikes were fierce and unrelenting, as well as powerful. Po came in knocking several boar out of the way.

"I've got it!" Po exclaimed while head butting a boar "It could be that falcon bandit Qia-"

"Po I'm busy!"

"Oh sorry"

Monkey came swinging across the roof of a building. With his staff he swept five boars off their feet. Crane came in too, deflecting and parrying the boar's blows and retaliating with his own strikes.

"Okay how about the-"

"Po!"

The battle had stopped. Both the Furious Five, the Bandits, and the villagers stared up at the sky. A huge red cloud was coming closer.


	17. Chapter 17

"You still gonna go through wi' dis?"

"Of course, and if you stay in my good favor you might just be able to come along with me"

"I'll pass there Chin, I'm happy wi' me organs where they are thank you"

"Suit yourself, but something tells me you're going to change your mind"

"Yeah well you best keep quiet here comes the guards"

"Time for the courtyard already?"

"yeah, you ov'rslept,stayed up too late plannin'"

"That I did" said Chin as he rubbed the bits of gunk out of his eyes and yawned.

The cell doors were opened and Chin and Yao-Dao were ushered into the courtyard. As usuall it was crowded. Chin cautiously made his way through the horde of prisoners. As Chin was walking a green tail suddenly lashed out from behind some convicts tripping Chin. A large muscular figure suddenly grabbed Chin by his shirt. Chin found himself staring into the striking eyes of a familiar komodo dragon, Chin knew he had met him before, but he couldn't remmeber his name.

"So you are Mumbles "

"Mm'rmrmrR!"

"Thought so, look a komodo dragon without his teeth is as scary as a scorpion without a stinger"

"Mrmrmrmmmrrm!"

"I don't know what you said but your getting on my nerves lizard"

"Mrmmmrm!" said the komodo holding it's fist out in front of Chin's face.

"Oh so you want retribution huh?"

"Mrr!"

"Have it your way" said Chin, who from his current position was able to kick the komodo dragon directly in the throat causing it release him and stumble backwards.

Chin then delivered a second kick to the dragon's stomach and knocked him to the ground. Then Chin kicked him again and again until he was sure that his dominance was secure. He might be everyone else's punching bag, but he wasn't going to be the punching bag of a toothless komodo dragon. Unfortunatly Mumbles had made friends, one of which was a large cobra. Chin suddenly found himself suspended upside down.

"I did not appreciate that" Hissed the cobra "No one beatsss up my errand boy"

"Er… he started it"

"He'sss a komodo dragon without any teeth! That wassss jussst a jerk move on your part"

"Er…Piss off I'm a bandit!"

"Sssso am i!"

"Uh, Yao? Yao Dao! Give me a hand over here"

"Sorry Chin" the crocodile called "I 'aint messing wi' de likes o' 'im"

"Yao! Oof!" Chin exclaimed as he was socked in the stomech.

The cobra wound it's long, sinewy body around Chin, preventing him from escaping, while the komodo dragon took the opportunity to pummel Chin.

"Yao! C'mon! I'm gonna help you escape this place!"

"No one essscapesss Shu Long!"

"Stop fightin' Chin, stay down an' they'll leave!

"C'mon Yao, I'm your only chance for freedom!"

"Chin, mate, I 'aint gonna get free wi' you er any body else!"

"Oh don't be a coward-OW! That hurt you bloody dragon!"

"Alright guys, dat'll do!" Said Yao "Leave me mate alone, 'es leaned 'is lesson"

"Shut up Yao" the cobra hissed "We're done with him when I sssay we're done with him!"

"Bloody Snake!" Chin Cursed

The cobra only tightened it's coils

"Oof! That *cough* does it you *wheez* serpentine blighter!"

There is one thing about rats, they might not be physically strong, but they do have sharp teeth, _very_ sharp teeth. The cobra found this out for himself. One moment he had a rat caught in his coils the next the rat had his coils caught in his mouth. With a scream of pain the cobra loosened it's grip on Chin, and when it did so Yao came and delivered a viscous slap with his tail. The cobra went flying. With no one to hold him down Chin sprand to his feet and delivered a viscous kick to the Komodo's groin. The great lizard let out a groan and slumped over.

"About time" Chin grumbled

"Sorry 'bout dat, but I make it me buisness not to get involved in fights dat aint mine!"

"Very well then" Chin sniffed the air "Say goodbye to this place Yao, there'll be a storm tonight, and that's when we'll make our escape!"

"Look Chin, there aint no escapin' dis place!"

"We'll see, we'll see, now if you excuse me I've got a few things to do, by chance do you know where a bucket of water is?"

Meanwhile in a town a few miles away from Shu Long prison.

"Alright Xiao, all you have to do is fly about with this sheet" said Bai-Ling draping a white sheet over the yellow house bat. "Then just fly about screaming"

"Er"

"Just fly in then fly out, make sure to scare them!"

"Fly in fly out got it"

"Oh and I almost forgot" said Bai-Ling taking out a brush "I need to put on your face paint first"

"Ow! You're getting it in my eyes!"

"Sorry, don't rub it It'll smear"

"Alright alright"

"Okay that looks good, you look like a real ghost now, Da-Ming have you memorized your lines?"

"Er…"

"I gave you a written copy"

"That's kinda the problem Miss Bai-Ling, I sorta can't read"

"Oh, look it isn't that hard as soon as Xiao comes flying out there'll be a big fuss, then you and I just walk in, let me do the talking"

"Got it"

"Do the rest of you know your roles?" said Bai-Ling as she turned to the rest of the rats, half of them were clad in black the other dressed in white and covered in fake blood.

There was a chorus of Yes ma'ams from the horde of rodents.

"Good, okay take these" said Bai-Ling as she handed the rats in black their supplys "When Xiao flys through make sure to set off the smoke bombs and make a lot of noise, then you" she said gesturing to the rats in white "Come running around howling and moaning, remember, we're exorcists!"

"Got it"

"Yessum!"

"Good, alright everyone on my signal!"

Meanwhile back at Shu Long

"Careful now Chin"

"Quiet you!" Chin hissed "You'll ruin the element of surprise!"

"Alright alright"

Meanwhile

The one eyed rat carefully snuck behind Lu Bao, who was busy doing pushups. As slowly as he could, Chin raised the bucket over the leopard, and then, with a sudden shout of triumph, spilled the freezing cold water upon Lu Bao. The leopard leapt straight into the air and Chin sped off laughing manically. Lu Bao fell with a loud WHUMP as he hit the cold dirt of the courtyard. Slowly Lu Bao got to his feet.

"That little bastard"

Meanwhile

The Furious Five fought ferociously, kicking and dodging, but the buzzing red cloud was proving to be quite the opponent. Every kick they made, every punch they through, the cloud absorbed, then it gripped and they would be flung aside as the huge crimson cloud raided shops and houses alike.

"It's not after us!" Tigress said "It's after the shops!"

"It's stealing!" shouted Monkey "Po! Po?"

"Don't worry guysI've got this!" Said Po, who was standing in the doorway of a resturant using a the lid of a pot as a shield and batting away the swarming red cloud with a frying pan.

"You do that!" shouted Mantis

"Monkey! Crane! Go defend the stores, I'll help out here!" Ordered Tigress

Viper and Mantis went off to defend the various Pottery stands that dotted the streets.

"With a little luck we might be able to defeat this thing"

Meanwhile

"Why'd you do dat Chin? Couldn't you 'ave stabbed 'im er sumfin?"

"That was just to tide me over, my real revenge will come soon enough"

Meanwhile

The moon shone in through the bared window, reflecting on the puddles of unknown liquid that covered the floor of the cell. Chin sniffed the air.

"Ah, there'll be a storm tonight"

" 'Owe'dyu know?"

"I'm a ship rat, *sniff* ah yes, and here comes Hung I believe, making his usual rounds."

Chin clawed at one the many stitches that made up the patchwork rag he wore until he managed to pull out a long thread. Then Chin reached into his mouth and with a tug and a grunt he removed a gold tooth. The rat bandit tied the thread around the tooth, and as soon as Hung walked down the corridor through it out through the bars. Hung was nothing if not greedy.

"What's this?" Hung mused to himself as he reached down to pick up the gold tooth, as soon as he did so the tooth was yanked away.

Reacting more on instinct then on Common sense Hung lunged for the tooth, crashing in front of the bars of Chin's cell. Hung was well armored expect for one place, his head, he wore no helmet. And as soon as he was lying in front of Chin's cell the rat reached out and grabbed the rabbit's ears. Hung was slammed against the bars repeatedly until he fell over, unconscious. Chin gingerly reached over and grabbed a ring of keys off of Hung's belt.

"Did you jus' knock 'Ung out?"

"Yes, yes I did" said Chin as he unlocked the cell door. "Are you coming?"

"I...well… ah buggrit why not!"

Yao Dao walked out of the cell. For a few minutes they walked in silence over to Hung's quarters. There Chin retrieved his belongings, including his map and his riddles.

"So whuts the plan?" Yao Dao finally asked

"Well" said Chin as he tapped the walls "I believe there are a series of pipes leading in and out of this prison, we find where the pipes are located, and we escape through them, easy"

"We're crawlin' through pipes?"

"I'm a rat, you're a crocodile, we're both great swimmers, it'll be easy"

"But whut if the guards catch us?"

"Don't worry, I've got a plan" said Chin, smiling mischievously.

Chin walked over to Lu Bao's cell.

"Hey, hey, HEY! Wake up you great spotted bastard!"

Lu Bao jumped out of his bed with a start

"Chin! How'd you? Nevermind that! I'm gonna kill you!" shouted Lu Bao as he pressed himself up against the bars.

"Really now?" Chin said Dangling the keys in front of him.

"You? You mean?"

Chin dropped the keys in Lu Bao paws.

"There'll be guards coming soon, making their rounds and such, if I were you I'd unlock the others, get a whole mob together, take the prison by force"

"Why are you helping me?" Lu Bao asked as he unlocked his cell.

"Would you rather have the alternative?"

"I guess not, but why unlock me?"

"I think you'd make a better leader then I would, people'll listen to you, you can have all the credit of being the first one to escape Shu Long Prison"

"Thanks Chin! I take back everything I've ever said about you!"

"Your more than welcome, now unlock the other prisoners quickly! Attack the guards before they catch on!"

"Got it, I wont forget this Chin!" shouted Lu Bao as he ran down the corridor unlocking other prisoners and assembling a motley horde.

"Why you doin' dat Chin?" Yao Dao asked "They aint mathc fer any of dem rhino guards!"

"Precisely, they're the distraction"

"Whut'dyu mean?"

"The guards will be so preoccupied with betaing them that we can find the pipes and slip out unnoticed!"

"I might be a reptile, but yer more cold blooded den me!"

"You flatter me, now enough of this bloody stupid banter we gotta escape!"

The rat and the crocodile made their way through the many corridors of Shu Long, until at last they found the baths. Yao Dao burst through the door and Chin immediately got to work gnawing away at a wall. He eventually gnawed through enough mortar for Yao to smash down the wall as well (on the second try of course, it was a brick wall) and there it was, a huge pipe, unfortunately Chin hadn't calculated the size of a pipe of hot water, which were quite small, too small even for him. The pipe in front of him on the other hand, was not full of hot water, in fact it was full of something rather different. Different and smelly.

"Er… Chin, dat pipe is full of sewage"

"It would appear so" said Chin, sniffing the pipe "Nonetheless it's our only chance of escape!"

Chin gnawed into the pipe. The smell was awful.

Meanwhile.

The red cloud was slowly retreating, unfortunately for the Furious Five, it was retreating with the stolen goods.

"It's getting away!" Tigress shouted.

"It's too fast, we'll never catch up to it!" said Mantis

"If only we knew where it was going"

"Chin might be able to answer that, I've heard he found some sort of map or something."

"Do you think it has anything to do with the thefts?"

"Might, it's our only lead right now" said Mantis as he watched the red cloud disappear in the distance.

Meanwhile.

Lightning struck, illuminating the outside of Shu Long. There was a large pipe suspended over the water. A small trickle of dirty water flowed from it. Then two solids trickled from it. They landed in the water, but their splash was drowned out by the pouring of rain. They slowly made their way to shore. Chin, who was looking dirtier then before looked up at Yao Dao. The crocodile, who used to be green and was now a greenish brown looked back down at Chin.

"Yao, we are free" said Chin with a smile.

"'s funny, me first thought is dat I need a baff"

"…me too, odd that"

"Where do we go now?"

"I believe there is a town nearby" said Chin, lets head there, if we're lucky we might be able to find my gang, poor bastards are probably hopelessly wanderin' about the streets like he bunch of beggars they are, they need me you know"

Meanwhile

Bai-Ling counted the huge pile of coins that lay before her.

"Good job everybody! That's our seventh success! Well done!"

"We aren't usually this lucky" Da-Ming Chimed in "I wish Chin were here, the only time we get lucky and Chin isn't here"

"Yeah, I wonder if he'll ever get out, they don't allow visitors in Shu-Long."

"If Chin were here right now we'd probably be makin' double what we have ehre!"

"Yeah I bet we wou- hold on I hear someone coming!"

The gang froze and stared at the rain battered street. In the dark Bai-Ling could make out a small shadowy figure, being followed by a larger shadowy figure were slowly making their way across from them. Bai-Ling noticed that the smaller figure had a hat, a hat that was very familiar.

"CHIN!"

Faster than a bolt of lightning Bai-Ling sped across the street and latched onto the dirty one eyed rat, knocking him over in the process.

"Bai-Ling? Bai-Ling! Get off me!"

The White fishing bat had her wings wrapped around Chin, holding him in an inescapably embrace.

"Chin! We've missed you! We've missed you so much!"

"Bai-Ling!"

"We've been doing real good sir! Real good! We made lots!" Da-Ming chimed in "I'm glad your back boss!"

"Oh Chin I thought I'd never see you again *sniff* ewww Chin sir you kinda sme-"

"Shut up Bai-Ling I know!"

"Sorry sir,. Who's this sir?"

"Yao-Dao, met him in prison, now GEROFFME!" shouted Chin trying in vain to push Bai-Ling off.

Eventually the fishing bat released her grip and Chin was able to stand up.

"Alright you lot, you're glad I'm back, I'm glad I'm back, no time to celebrate, I've got the map and we've got a treasure to find!"

With that came a cheer from Chin's gang. The gang was reunited once more.


	18. Chapter 18

"What was that thing!' Po asked

"I have no idea"

"Po you where closer to it, did you notice anything?"

"Yeah it was big and red an-"

"Anything we don't know already?"

"Oh… it kinda tickled"

"Tickled?"

"Yeah maybe it's some sort of-"

"Quiet Po, I hear someone!"

A tiny rabbit peaked out from underneath a pile of debris.

"Is it gone?"

"Yeah don't worry, it's gone"

"Then we can come out?"

"Yeah"

A large horde of rabbits came creeping out from their makeshift shelters amidst the rubble.

"Did you get it?"

"No, but don't worry" said Tigress leaning down "We will"

Meanwhile

"So" said Yao Dao "This is yer gang?"

"Yes, I told you they were a bunch of idiots"

"Sir?"

"What is it Da-Ming?"

"I just thought that, well, since you've been losing some of your weapons-"

"What? That you'd challenge me!"

"No!"

"Is that it Da-Ming? Just because I lost my sword and my sleeve arrow you think I'm defenseless!"

"No sir, it's just that-"

"I still have this rice flail! And I'll flail you something awful!"

"I brought your crossbow boss"

"What?"

Da-Ming lifted up something wrapped up in cloth.

"Your crossbow sir" said Da-Ming as he untied the strings. The cloth fell away to reveal Chin's crossbow.

Immediately Chin snatched the crossbow from Da-Ming's paws.

"Careful you idiot! Were you carrying this the whole bloody time!"

"Yessir"

"You could've damaged it you brain dead blaggard! Ah! A smudge!" Chin said as he furiously wiped away a tiny smudge from the crossbow's stock.

"Sorry sir"

"Shut up Da-Ming"

"Yessir"

"So whut now?" Yao Dao asked

"We've got a treasure map, all we have to do is follow it, find the treasure, and become filthy stinking rich!"

"Sounds like a plan der mate! Let's go!"

"First thing we do is find a boat"

"There's a harbor nearby sir!" Bai-Ling chimed in "We can steal a boat from there"

"Good thinking, lead the way Bai-Ling"

"Er… Chin, I uh! I mean, boss?"

"Not now Xiao, come on we need to find ourselves a boat"

Then Chin heard a voice call his name.

Chin knew that voice, he heard it in his nightmares occasionally. Slowly the one eyed rat turned around. There, standing behind them, were the Furious Five. Chin didn't say anything, well he did give a shrill Squeak of terror. Chin ran and he ran fast, but unfortunately not fast enough. Before he could get away Tigress grabbed him by the tail and suspended him upside down.

"Eep!"

"Chin we-"

"It wasn't me! Da-Ming told me to do it! He's the actual leader!"

"What?"

"Yeah that's it! He's, uhh, the brains of the operation, I'm just his patsy! I take all the blame while he gets off scot free! He's a viscous brute!"

"But sir"

"Shut up Da-Ming! You're a viscous brute!"

"Oh sorry, _grrrr_" Da-Ming's growl would make the buzzing of a gnat sound threatening in comparison.

"You see! Er…"

" Chin we're here to talk, not give the righteous beating that you have coming."

"So…you're not angry?" Chin asked carefully

"No, but if you try what you did at Waihai I will be" Tigress growled

"Eep!"

"We've need to see that flower petal you found Chin"

"What?"

"The flower petal, the one no one could identify"

"Ohhh…er…hold on a sec" Said Chin as he rummaged around in his hat "Ahh, here it is!" he said as he handed the petal to Tigress.

Tigress held the petal up in the light.

"This isn't a petal, this is a butterfly's wing!"

"Whoa! You mean that big red cloud thing was a butterfly!"

"Not A butterfly, but Butterflies, a swarm of them"

"Oh yeah, that makes sense"

"Chin, I understand you have a map"

"No I don't!" Chin said automatically

Tigress shook Chin, a map fell to the ground, along with several knives, some coins, a few bonus mahjong pieces, and a picture of his mother. Tigress picked up the map.

"If I am correct, this map leads to some sort of treasure, does it not?"

"Er…"

"Don't lie to me Chin"

"Yes! Yes it does!"

"What if this is where the butterflies come from?"

"Er…"

"Worth a try" said Monkey "We've searched everywhere else"

"I think we'll pay them a little visit, this map is proving to be useful"

"H-hey that is my map you know"

"Yes, that's why you're coming with us"

"Coming with you! Wait! Wait a second!"

"We need all the help we can get"

"Yeah but why do you need MY help?"

"Because you're the closest one available, your gang can come to"

"But why should I?"

"If you do we might look the other way if you happen to take any of the treasure hidden away their"

"An interesting proposal, and if I say no?"

"Then I'll drag you there by your tail and when it's all over I'll throw you into the nearest prison, which just might be Shu Long"

"They've upped the security ever since you broke out" Monkey added

"…oh, er… then I guess I'll come along then"

"Good, we'll need to find a boat, looks like their hideout is on an island"

"…yeah"

"Cheer up Chin" said Monkey "We aren't beating you up"

"…good point"

"It'll be worth it" Viper added "You can have some treasure"  
>"Yeah, yeah, so…we're going after a bunch of butterflies?"<p>

"Pretty much"

"Were these butterflies tough in any way?"

"What do you mean?"

"Was there any difficulty in fighting these butterflies?"

"The only difficult part trying to hit them!" Po added "They flew everywhere and where all like 'hey Po, you want to hit us? Tough' well they didn't actually say that but they were thinking it, probably"

"… I see, very well then, you blighters! You're coming with me get to your feet!"

Chin's gang got up and followed Chin obediently, Chin in turn followed the Furious Five.


	19. Chapter 19

Tigress looked at the map.

"Alright, according to this map, the island we're looking for should be nearby"

"That's good"

"I recommend we head towards that town and take a boat to the island."

"Hey!" Chin started, forgetting he was talking to Tigress "It's my map!"

"Fine, then you tell us where we should go" said Tigress handing the map back to Chin.

"I…oh…er… we head for that town and get a boat and sail to the island"

"Very well, lets go"

Tigress started down the hill, Chin followed, grumbling to himself. Slowly they made their way towards the town, it was very busy, every which way there were merchants and sailors going about their business. Tigress stopped one of them, a dog who was unloading crates from her boat.

"Excuse me?"

"Huh? Oh hello there"

"It is vitally important that we use your boat, do you think we could use it? We will pay"

"Oh…er I don't know 'bout that, I've got a lot of shipments to make an-" the dog became aware that Chin was glaring at her.

Tigress caught on immediately.

"Don't" she warned

"I'm not going to do anything" Chin protested

"That's right, you aren't"

"But, hypothetically, if she were to, say, not lend us her boat (which she is) and I happened to take her around a corner out of sight and …_things_ were to happen and we got the boat and stopped the butterflies wouldn't you say it was for the common good?"

"What if I, hypothetically, kicked your mangy behind halfway across the harbor?"

"…good point."

"Look" Po added "We kinda need your boat to stop some butterflies"

"…_Butterflies_?" the dog asked

"Yeah, evil butterflies, they've been stealing things and we need to deliver justice upon them!" Po added triumphantly.

"… I see, can it wait?"

"How long?" Chin asked

"Well, unloading all these crates by myself takes a while, but if you would all help out-"

"What? So you can get free labor?"

"Well…yes, but if I get all my shipping done I'd take you guys anywhere you wanted to go, how about that?"

"I still think it would be easier if I jus-"

"We'll do it"

"-took her behind a corner-bloody hell!"

"If we work together it will take no time at all"

"There's the problem word, work"

"Chin you will work or I'll hang you upside down by your tail and use you as a practice dummy"

Faster than a blink of an eye Chin was on the boat lifting up a crate.

"What are you blighters waiting for?" Chin asked his gang "Help me you blaggards!"

With Chin's gang the work took only ten minutes. And at last the dog took them aboard her boat.

"This map" the dog began looking at the map that had been handed to her "Is nearly impossible to read! I'm not sure if we're going the right way"

"Just try your best"

"Who wrote this thing? This very well may be the worst map I've ever had to navigate with."

"Shut up and sail or I'll have you made into dog dumplings you canine bugger!"

The dog looked down at Chin for the longest time.

"I'm sorry but I've just got to say this, your adorable"

"…_What?_"

"You're just this little rat who goes around acting like a big tough bandit, it's adorable"

"_Little rat_! I'll have you skinned alive for that you no good b-"

"Land!" Po shouted suddenly "I see land!"

"The term's Land Ho"

"Oh, sorry, Land Ho!"

Chin's gang and the Furious Five gathered at the bow. There, off in the distance, veiled in mist to the point that it was hardly visible, was an island. A very large, foreboding island. Placed at the front of the island was a large fortress, a massive edifice covered in makeshift defenses, wood and metal spikes lined it's massive, crumbling stone walls.

A wall of sorts spread out to the left and right of the fortress and behind it, just barely visible, was a small palace. Just overhead a swarm of red butterflies flew over the walls and into the palace.

"This must be the place"

"So the treasure is in there?"

"The treasure is the stolen loot"

"Oh… do you think, I mean, you said I could possibly, you know, help myself to some treasu-"

"Save it Chin, we need to focus first, how are we going to get passed that fortress"

As the boat got closer they were greeted by an arrow which suddenly lodged itself into the floorboards near Chin's feet. Atop the fortress they could see hordes of bandits and pirates lining the walls. Wolves, boars, crocodiles, vultures, leopards, and oxen.

"Bugger"

"Dat'll be tough ter get passed" Yao commented.

Chin produced out his crossbow and lovingly patted the wooden stock.

"Er… Mr Chin sir?"

"Yes Xiao?"

"We're not gonna try to fight them are we?"

"That's exactly what we are gonna do Xiao"

"Oh"

A couple more arrows were launched at the boat, Chin and his gang ducked as did the Furious Five. A single arrow found its way into Chin's hat, knocking it off his head. Chin, in turn, fired at them with his crossbow. A couple dozen crossbow bolts flew at the assorted group of bandits, many of which ducked behind haphazard wooden defenses. The dog took this opportunity to anchor the boat right on shore and Chin and the Furious Five wasted no time in jumping overboard before the bandits could fire back. Chin held his crossbow, now, he thought to himself, how am I to get inside? 


	20. Chapter 20

"So how are we gonna get in? Any ideas? Chin?"

"What?"

"You are the master strategist after all"

"Self proclaimed Master strategist" Mantis added

"Ah, well, I suggest we wait 'til they run out of arrows then stage a frontal assault"

The two groups of animals were clustered safely behind a pile of rocks and foliage, the other side was completely studded with arrows. Every now and then an arrow would fly overhead and land in the beach in front of them or splash into the water.

"How many arrows do they have?"

"A lot"

"This could take some time"

"Could we, by chance, just rush them?"

"No, that would be suicidal"

"What if we had a distraction, and while they're firing away the rest of us could just sneak behind and scale the walls, that way we'd be on equal ground"

"Well it could work, but who would be foolish enough to play moving target?" Chin said

Everyone looked at Chin.

"Don't look at me like that! You lot are here to protect people not have them get shot up with arrows! Use Da-Ming"

"Fine, we'll have to think of another way"

"Or you could use Da-Ming, I'd be fine with that"

"Hey guys! Why don't we try digging beneath them! That way we'd take them completely by surprise!" Po chimed in

"I'm pretty sure Da-Ming would make a decent distraction"

"We could sail off and attack from the other side of the island"

"I don't think so, we'd have to get this boat back into the water and that would leave us open to attack"

"Oh look what you lot got me into" the dog moaned "I can't even get to my boat!"

"Hey wait, crocodiles are good swimmers right?"

"Yeah" Yao Dao answered

"You could swim to the other side of the island, sneak inside, and open up the gates"

"I'm a good 'nuff swimmer, but we crocs aint so stealthy on land as we is in water"

"Hmmmm, wait, rats are sneaky aren't they?"

"We are arguably the stealthiest animals in the world" Chin said proudly

"How good are rats at swimming?"

"Impeccable"

"Good, Chin you and your gang swim around to the other side of the island, sneak inside and open up the gates"

"Alright, but if I happen to find any treasure-"

"I'll bet all the treasure is being kept in that palace Chin, just open up the gate and we'll rush in then head up to the palace"

"Fine fine, but if there happens to be any treasure could I… help myself?"

"…Fine"

"Very well then, Bai-Ling Xiao you two stay here, Da-Ming, Cheng, Dong, er… you two-"

"I'm Rong sir"

"I don't care and you-"

"I'm-"

"The other one, are swimming with me, Yao You come along too in case they have any underwater defenses I need you to take care of"

"You got it mate"

Yao Dao silently slid into the water, followed by Chin and his rats. For a while all was silent save for the sounds of arrows bouncing off the rocks or sticking into trees. The assorted bandits didn't even see Chin and his rats as they silently scaled the makeshift walls. Chin silently sled past haphazard wooden turrets and glided like a shadow past various guards, whilst Da-Ming and the others followed clumsily (but quietly) after him.

"What's taking so long?" Bai-Ling moaned

"They've only been gone a couple of minutes"

"Yeah but… I'm still kinda, you know, worried about him"

"Don't worry about Chin if he can survive Tigress he can survive this, I've fought him enough to know he's a tough little rat"

"Maybe I could just fly over there, to make sure everything working out"

"I wouldn't risk it if I were you, you'd be shish cabobed with arrows!"

"Maybe I could just fly close to the water, they wouldn't see me that way"

"Chin said he'd open the gates, and while I doubt Chin would be the type of keep his word, I know that he's clever enough to realize that this fortress is the only thing standing between him and treasure" said Tigress

"Yeah but-"

"He can do it, he's a coward but if he wants to leave this island alive he'll have to get the gate open"

"Yeah well-"

"Don't worry Bai-Ling, Chin doesn't need any help"

"…okay"

Bai-Ling was silent for a moment, thinking to herself, then, finally, she reached a conclusion and before the Five could stop her she flew off. Xiao hesitated, he was new to the gang and wanted to make a good impression, that and it was awkward being alone with the Furious Five, he then he decided to fly off as well. The two bats hovered silently over the water and gracefully made their ways around the fortress.

"Alright" Chin hissed "Here's how we're gonna do it, you lot are going to sneak behind of certain bandits, strategic bandits, and…_dispose_ of them if you know what I mean"

"I don't"

"What?"

"I don't know what you mean sir"

"Dispose of them"

"What does dispose mean?"

"*sigh* get rid of"

"Oh, how're we gonna do that boss?"

"You're going to use FORCE Da-Ming"

"Er…"

"*sigh* bloody hell Da-Ming, YOU"RE GOING TO ATTACK THEM YOU DOLT!" as soon as Chin shouted he instantly cupped a paw to his mouth.

"Who's there!" a boar asked

Chin brought a finger to his lips and hissed "Shhh" carefully he wriggled his tail out from his hiding place. The boar drew his sword and approached. He walked behind the barrels Chin and his gang were hidden behind. There was a loud grunt and a rumble, then silence, Chin and his gang craftily slid out from behind the crates leaving an unconscious boar behind.

"As I was saying" Chin continued, while you idiots attack the guards I'll run to the gate and unlock it, then the Furious Five will take care of the rest."

"Let me get this straight, while we attack the big scary bandits and reveling our position, you'll be sneaking to the door and unlocking it?" said Cheng

"Yes, is there a problem with that?"

"…er… no sir, it just seems a bit, you know, dangerous"

" Cheng, Cheng, you're job is in fact the safest, in fact the only one in danger is me"

"Really?"  
>"I'm the one that must bravely sneak past all the guards and unlock the door, why I could be shot full of arrows, stabbed with spears, hacked to pieces by swords and you lot think you're job is dangerous?"<p>

"No no no! it er… just sounded dangerous, what with attacking the bandits and all, but, well, now that you mention it I guess you're job is a bit more dangerous"

"A bit! Why Cheng it's damn near suicidal, if it weren't for you lot distracting the guards I'd be killed at least twenty different ways before I even took my first step! And that's not to mention the Furious Five! As soon as that gate is open they'll just come charging in all helter skelter! They might attack me mistaking me for another bandit! Consider yourself lucky Cheng, getting that cushy, easy job of attacking a few dangerous bandits"

"Er… I guess so, thanks sir!"

"Thank me later Cheng we've got work to do"

Quietly Chin's gang creeped up along the walls and behind bandits, while Chin himself hid safely behind a pile of crates, waiting. Da-Ming was silently perched above a huge wolf, ready to hit it on the head with a cudgel. Chin prepared himself, as soon as his gang attacked he'd make a break straight for the gate, hopefully not being slaughtered in the process. He knew Da-Ming would be the first to strike, mostly because the rest of the gang were waiting for someone else to make the first move, and that someone was often Da-Ming, as soon as the scruffy rat hit the wolf the rest of the gang would strike as well and in the pandemonium Chin would sprint for the gate, he just needed to wait. Slowly Da-Ming raised the club, Chin readied himself to run. Right before Da-Ming struck a white bat crashed into his hiding place.

"Oops, sorry sir I-"

"Damn it Bai-Ling!" Chin shouted he became aware that the bandits, having heard the crash and noticed unfamiliar looking rats standing behind them with weapons, were looking very angry.

"er…SCATTER!" Chin made a mad dash towards the door, dodging arrows and spears. Chin finally reached the gate, but before he could open it he was accosted by a familiar looking wolf.

"Hey you're that rat who tackled me" the wolf growled

"Er… I'm sure I don't know what you are talking about"

"Back at the inn, you tackled me and kicked me out you mangy, little-"

Chin delivered a swift kick to the groin and shot passed him. Around him the battle was one sided, bandits grabbing and chasing after Chin's gang, Bai-Ling and Xiao shot passed over head, followed by a group of vultures, Da-Ming and Cheng were be chased about by a group of yaks, and a gorilla was after Dong.

"Run! Run you idiots! Get out!" Chin screamed, the wolf, now reduced to a hobble, drew his sword and made his way towards Chin. The one eyed rat quickly scrambled up the wall. Guided by pure instincts Chin leapt off the wall and rolled across the sand beneath. Scuttling on all fours Chin narrowly escaped arrows as he darted behind the rocks.

Chin took a couple of deep breaths, then he turned towards the Furious Five.

"Keep the treasure, me and my gang are out of here!" Chin said "Forget the boat, we'll swim thank you very much, I am not going back there and no treasure will convince me to do so, come on you lot, let's go…Da-ming? Bai-Ling?"

"Chin" said Viper "You're the only one who got out"

"…you mean my gang… is still in there?"

"I'm afraid so"

Chin turned and faced the fortress.

"M-my gang…but my gang"

"Chin?"

"My gang" Viper was certain she heard a sniffle from Chin

"Chin are you okay?"

"How am I going to get my gang back!"

"Don't worry we'll find a way"

"What if they're dead! What if those blaggards killed them!"

"Calm down Chin"

"Like hell I will! Shouted Chin jumping over the rocks, he didn't get far before Tigress grabbed him by the tail and dragged him to safety.

"Are you insane, you'll be killed!"

"But it's my gang! I can't just leave them in the hands of those despicable blighters!"

"Chin there is nothing you can do, we'll rescue you're gang, just wait"

"I'm not waiting, they could be getting killed as we speak! That's my gang! Property of Do Chin! ME! They're my gang! They're…all I've got" said Chin looking down at his feet.

Tigress had never seen this side of Chin, neither had anyone else in the Furious Five, or in Chin's gang for that matter. The idea of Chin caring about someone else was like a fish flying.

"My gang's all I've got" Chin repeated to himself as he looked up at the fortress "My gang"


	21. Chapter 21

There was an inn right next to the beach. It wasn't fancy, in fact it was possibly one of the most rundown inns one could imagine. It was late at night and amidst the rough crowd of wolves and boars there sat a dirty, one eyed rat, trying to drink away his misery.

Chin had made several attempts to rescue his gang, each time he failed, miserably, and at one point came dangerously close to losing his other eye. It wasn't until he was almost beheaded with a fearsome looking glaive that he finally realized it was impossible, he couldn't get back into the fortress. Eventually Chin had hopped a ride back to shore with the dog in her boat, the Furious Five stayed, trying to find a way inside the fortress.

"There gone" Chin muttered just loud enough for the bartender to hear.

"You've been saying that for the last hour pal, just go on and get yourself a new gang"

"I can't, no one else is stupid enough to follow me, pass me another bottle will you?"

The bartender shrugged and handed Chin another bottle of rice wine. Chin immediately guzzled down half of it, covered his whiskers and beard in alcohol.

"Those idiots, bless them, were the only thing I've ever owned in my whole life"

"Really, what about your clothes?"

"I stole these, that doesn't count as owning really, hell this crossbow was made from stolen parts, but my gang, I owned that…them, I owned them, they were all idiots but damn it they were my idiots! And now they're gone! Locked away in some moldy old fortress or worse, and now I'm here all alone, just an ole one eyed rat, just another bandit, I used to be Chin! I had a gang that followed my every order! Of course they always messed things up, but they tried! They tried! And now they're gone!"

The boar nodded, if only to show that he was listening.

"Even the new guy! Bao or Xiao or something, they took him to! I don't even know why he followed me, poor bastard is stuck now! I don't have my gang! I'm not Chin the bandit I'm just Chin the sorry, drunk, one eyed rat who smells like rotting fish and shame"

The bartender nodded again, although he didn't realize shame had a smell, he figured it smelled something like urine.

"Without my gang I'm no one, I'm dead, I'm a corpse right now, you're talking to a corpse" said Chin unaware that the boar had left.

"You don't look to good"

Chin spun around to see a elderly tortoise standing behind him. Before Chin had a chance to talk the tortoise spoke.

"Tell me, what is wrong"

"I just lost my entire gang to some bloody fortress and I cant get them back, no matter how many times I've tried"

"That is a shame" said the tortoise nonchalantly

"You're telling me, no one else will is ever going to follow me, my gang were the only idiots stupid enough to do that, without them I'm just a dead rat, I'm a corpse"

At this the tortoise smiled

"I'm dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead" Chin muttered "I can't do things alone, look at these arms! I'm bloody skin and bones, hell I'm even small for a rat! How am I going to make it in this world now! Join someone else's gang? I don't bloody think so! I don't mean to sound melodramatic but my life is over!"

"I understand" said the Tortoise calmly "I can help you"

"…_you can_?" Chin asked suspiciously

"Yes, but first you need to come to terms with yourself"

"What do you mean by that?"

The Tortoise smiled again "You are not acting like yourself are you?"

"Of course not! I've just lost my whole bloody gang and have spent the last couple of hours fighting back tears with booze!"

"Ah, that is how you usually act isn't it?"

"What angry and screaming?"

The Tortoise chuckled "You act that way to cover something up"

"I don't like what you're saying old man"

"You are the runt of the litter yes?"

Chin looked around to make sure no one was listening "…_yes_"

"You've been bullied all your life?"

"…yeah, and?"

"Over the years you've acted this way to mask your small size and your fear"

"I don't know about you, but I have no fear! I'm someone to be frightened of!" Chin growled "…or atleast I used to be"

The Tortoise only smiled again "You fear everyone bigger than you, thinking that they will try to hurt you like so many have done in the past, that is why you acted so tough"

"I don't fear anyone bigger than me! In fact when I find someone bigger than me I kick them in the groin just so I can look them in the eyes before stabbing them repeatedly!"

"And over the years" the tortoise continued, seemingly ignorant of what Chin had said "You've only grown more and more bitter until the mask you wore became a part of you, but behind that mask is a small child"

"Hey shut up you reptilian blighter!"

"And right now that mask is broken, and the world can see your true colors"

"I said shut u-"

"This is not something you should worry about, this is something you should learn from"

"What?"

"Chin-"

"How do you know my name!"

"Chin, you must realize that you are small"

"How they hell will that help me get my gang back"

"You didn't let me finish" the Tortoise said with a smile "You must realize that you are small, and that that doesn't make a difference, over the years you've grown more and more skilled despite your misfortune, you must move out from underneath the shadows of your past, your bullies cannot get you now, they have forgotten about you, but you have new bullies and now the Chin of the present must do what the Chin of the past couldn't do"

"…_Stand up for myself_?"

The Tortoise smiled.

"But how will I get into that fortress? It's locked tight and guarded! They'll kill me before I even make it to the front gate!"

"You said you were dead"

"And?"

"What do the dead have to fear about being killed?"

"I… Hey that's right! I am dead! I am dead! Hahahaha! I'm dead! They cant hurt me! I've got nothing to lose!"

"Who are you talking to?"

Chin turned around, the boar was back where he had been before and was giving him a puzzled look.

"I was talking to this-" Chin looked around, the tortoise was gone "Crazy old turtle must have left" Chin muttered to himself as he got up off his chair.

"Hey! Are you going to pay for your drinks?"

Chin turned around slowly and the boar wished he hadn't said that.

"No, I'm dead, dead people don't pay for drinks" said Chin, a crazed grin on his face.

Before the boar could say anything Chin had ran out of the inn screaming that he was dead. Maybe the alcohol was finally taking affect or maybe Chin had lost his long fight with insanity.

"First order of business" said Chin to himself "Get more weapons" His crossbow, although impressive, wouldn't be enough.

Chin noticed a boar who happened to have a lot of weapons on his person. Chin, having spent part of his life as a smuggler, was able to indentify this boar as a weapons dealer.

"What do you have?" Chin asked

"Gah! Don't sneak up on me like that!" said the boar, clutching at his heart.

"I said what do you have?"

"Alright alright settle down" said the boar, opening up his jacket and revealing a showcase of impressive looking swords, knives, and other weapons.

"What are those" said Chin, pointing to two small swords.

"Those? They're called Butterfly swords" Chin grinned when he heard the name.

"I'll take them"

"Alright, that'll be, lets see, fifty for both, twenty five separately"

Chin became aware that he had no money on him, and for the briefest moment almost considered selling his beloved crossbow, but he quickly shook that thought from his head when he realized he had a large repeating crossbow.

"Tell you what" said Chin pointing his crossbow at the boar "You give me those swords, and I won't give you this"

"When examined the two butterfly swords, holding one in each hand, they were finely made swords, and very sharp, Chin smiled to himself. The next order of business was finding some back up, a temporary gang, and after his previous adventures, Chin had some ideas of possible candidates. Chin immediately grabbed some paper and began writing letters.

It took awhile, but eventually two figures made their way to the beach. One was a rabbit, and the other was a goat.

"Hello? Did you write me this letter?" the rabbit asked "About having the missing Rabbit scroll?"

"No, are you the one that wrote me the letter about a new boat?"

"No, I'm Wu Bang"

"Jing, nice to meet you, do you suppose the same person wrote both the letters?"

"I guess so, I hope this is where we're supposed to meet them"

"It is" said Chin stepping forward.

"You!" Both the goat and the rabbit said in unison

"Give me back the scroll you thief!"

"I want my boat back!"

"Shut up the two of you! My name is Chin, and right now I don't have my gang, you two, plus another, will be my temporary gang until I can rescue my old gang is that understood?"

"Why would I help you!" said Wu Bang

"Because if you don't, I'll kill you" the way Chin said that, and the way he looked at her, left no doubt in Wu Bang's mind that if she didn't comply Chin would, in fact, kill her. "That goes the same for you goat, I'm not having a very good night but that's going to change soon, and if you are not my ally then you are my enemy, and I feel bad for any of my enemies tonight understand?"

"er…yessir"

"You said there was another member of the gang? Where are they?"

"Follow me" said Chin as he walked over to a boat. "Hey! Hey dog!"

"Whussit?" said the dog sleepily, the same dog that had ferried Chin to the fortress.

"We're going to need your boat"

"Why? Do you have any idea what time it is? I'm trying to sleep"

"I need you to take me back to that island"

"What! Are you crazy I'm not going anywhere near that horrible place"  
>"Listen to me you mangy mutt, because I'm only going to tell you once, if you do not take me to that island I will come up there, tear off your head and do horrible, horrible things down your neck do you understand me?"<p>

"…_yessir_"

"Good, you two get aboard, we have work to do"

It was morning by the time the boat reached the island, the Furious Five were still clustered behind the rocks, waiting for the bandits to run out of arrows. Then, suddenly, out of no where, Chin came running forward. Tigress managed to stop him.

"Where are you going! They'll kill you!"

"Shut up I'm dead!" Chin screamed as he shot past her, straight to the door.

Chin rammed his body against the wooden gate, but to no avail.

"You goat! I need your head!"

"Yessir" said the goat as she ran charged forward, ramming the gate. The door splintered just enough so that Chin could reach in and unlock it. The door swung open slowly.

The bandits readied themselves, bows and swords, spears and clubs. Suddenly they were met with a barrage of crossbow fire. The assorted bandits ran for cover, some crashing into each other. Chin came changing in firing his crossbow and slashing with his swords. Chin had taken the bandits by surprise! They weren't expecting a crazy one eyed crossbow wielding rat to come running in screaming that he was a corpse, then again no one really expects that.

The wolf from before tried to stop Chin, only to be tackled to the ground and beaten relentlessly.

"Who's the runt of the litter now Xing! Who's the runt of the litter now!" the wolf didn't know who Xing was, but he felt very sorry if he ever met Chin again.

And whilst Chin was beating the wolf the Furious Five, accompanied by Jing the goat and Wu Bang came charging in. just in time to pull Chin off of a very bruised wolf, Chin was still swinging his fists even while in the air and cursing.

"I'm a mama's boy am I! huh! Who's the mama's boy now Chang! Huh! Huh!"

"Chin's got issues" said Viper, none of the Furious Five had ever seen this side of Chin, his crazy sociopathic side, which must people hope they never have to see.

Chin wriggled his way out and ran towards some other bandits screaming and firing his crossbow. A vulture that had been knocked over by one of Chin's strikes reached for his own crossbow. Chin acted quickly. His crossbow was pointed directly at the vultures head. The vulture pasued for a moment, considering his options.

"I know what you're thinking" said Chin "Did he fire fifty bolts? Or only forty nine? Well to tell you the truth I kinda lost track myself, but seeing as this is a masterly crafted repeating crossbow with a composite bow, and could blow your head clean off, actually, it probably wouldn't be very clean, I imagine there'd be blood everywhere, but you've got to ask yourself 'Do I feel lucky?' well do you?"

The vulture, who wasn't feeling particularly lucky, dropped the crossbow and flew off.

Chin smiled to himself, and then he heard a familiar voice.

"Boss? Is that you?" Chin looked behind him, there was his gang, locked up in cages. A single tear ran down Chin's face, they were alive.

Quickly Chin hacked off the locks and opened the cages. He was immediately met with a huge from Bai-Ling, who had shot out of her cage so fast that she nearly knocked Chin over.

"Oh Chin! You came back for us!"

"Yeah yeah, don't get used to it, this is the last time I'm rescuing you idiots, you're all alright aren't you?"

Chin was answered by a chorus of yeses

"Good, I only came back because I couldn't find any other gang at the moment so consider yourselves lucky"

"Oh sir! You rescued me!"

"Yes yes now shut up Bai-Ling"

"you rescued me! Just like in my dreams"

"…_what?_"

"I oh…er… nevermind"

"…Alright then, c'mon you blaggards up and at'em! Help me teach these buggers how real bandits fight!"

There were courageous cries from Chin's gang as they gathered any weapon they could find a charged into the fight. In short order all the other bandits were defeated.

"Now" Chin thought to himself "Now here come the butterflies"


	22. Chapter 22

"I'm so happy you came back sir!" Bai-Ling squealed, she was practically cemented to Chin, her wings wrapped around him like a membrane blanket.

"Bai-Ling" Chin growled I'm going to tell you one more time, let go or I'll be forced to chop your wings off"

"Sorry sir but no can do"

"Bai-Ling I'm warning you"

"You are the greatest bandit leader there is sir!"

"That I am but I'm still going to need you to let go"

"Only a great leader like you would come back for his gang!"

"What can I say, you blighters are idiots, but you're my idiots"

"I, sir, am proud to be one of your idiots!"

"I am too!" Da-Ming chimed in

"Me too!"

"Oi me too"

"Yao? You were captured to?"

"Aye"

"Good to have you back then"

"And me!"

"Me! I'm proud to be one of your idiots!"

"Alright shut up you lot, you're all my idiots, and *sigh* I'm proud to call myself your boss" Chin said forcing a smile.

"Hate to break up the reunion but are you going to help us with the butterflies or not?" Tigress asked

"Well I've been thinking and I figured, since I got us all in the fortress you can storm the palace and take care of the butterflies"

"Very well, but once we defeat the butterflies we'll just take all the treasure and return it"

"That's okay, I've decided the real treasure is my gang"

"…okay then" said Tigress as she and the rest of the furious five walked to the palace.

"We're you're treasure!" Bai-Ling squealed excitedly

"No you idiot! Treasure is the real treasure! I made that up so we don't have to fight, we're still bandits damn it! What we're going to do is sneak into the palace while the five are fighting the butterflies and rob the place blind, then we'll take our loot and sail on home!"

"Ohhhhh, good idea sir"

"Of course it's a good idea, it came from the greatest mind in all of China!"

"Who's that then?" Da-Ming asked

"ME you idiot!"

"Oh, you're really smart sir!"

" Of course I am! Let go Bai-Ling, we still have work to do" said Chin as he pushed Bai-Ling off "And don't mess it up this time you lot of idiots"

"Gentlemen today is the day we become rich! This is the day they'll tell stories about, about how the handsome and intelligent rat named Chin with his gang of loyal idiots robbed both the greatest thieves and the Furious Five blind!"

Chin's gang cheered.

"Lets go and make our fortune!" said Chin as he took a triumphant step forward

"Wait! What about us?" Wu Bang asked

"What? Oh you guys, you lot stay on the boat, have it ready to sail, we'll need to make a quick getaway"

"And why should we listen to you? You have your gang back so you don't need a temporary gang anymore"

"You be quiet!" Bai-Ling snapped "You should be honored to be taking orders from such a great, intelligent, capable, amazing, _handsome_ rat such as Chin"

"Bai-Ling?" Chin asked, his scarred face a mask of surprise.

"Er… Yessir, its just that… er I don't like people disobeying your orders sir-I mean they were given orders and well, uh yeah" said Bai-Ling, a look of embarrassment crossed her face before she turned around "You go get on that boat like Chin said or else he'll give you a second smile!"

"What does that mean?" Wu Bang asked

"It means he'll slit your throat!"

"That's right!" Chin added "Get your cotton tail on that boat before I hack it off!"

"You heard the rat! Go on!"

"Yes sir- I mean Ma'am!" Wu Bang managed as she, the goat Jing and the dog made their ways to the boat.

"Now where was I? ah yes, Let's go and make our fortunes!" said Chin taking a step forward.

"Wait sir!"

"*Sigh* yes Bai-Ling?"

"This could be really dangerous right?"

"Yes it most likely will be dangerous don't tell me you're having second thoughts"

"Oh I'm not, it's just… you know, in case we all die, I mean, I've just got to know this, sir, if you don't mind, how did you lose your eye?"

"My eye?"

"Boss probably lost it in some fierce battle!" Said Da-Ming

"Not exactly"

"You told me you lost it fighting the twelve hundred Apes of Dragon Mountain" said Cheng

"Well… that might have been a bit of a lie"

"Well then how did you lose your eye"

"… I guess there's no reason for you not to know, I lost my eye my first day on land, this was back when I was a ship rat sailing with pirates and wakos and raiding merchant ships back in my youth, well the ship I was on was sunk by an imperial legion and I managed to swim to shore"

"And you lost your eye fighting imperial soldiers?"

"No! shut up and listen, I swam to shore only to find myself getting chased by Imperial soldiers, so I ran into the woods"

"And that's where you fought the soldiers!"

"No I didn't fight any soldiers! If you interrupt me again I'll chop your tail off Da-Ming!"

"Sorry sir"

"Now as I was saying I was running through the woods when I tripped on a tree root and a branch went in my eye"

"…_ouch_"

"And that's how I lost my eye, I didn't lose it in a fight or in some feat of bravery, I lost it to a bloody tree"

"I would have never guessed" Bai-Ling said

"Yes now, Let's go and make our fortunes!" said Chin taking another step forward

"Wait!"

"What the bloody hell is it this time!"

"I just wanted to wish everyone good luck" Da-Ming said

"Good, good luck everyone! Now… Let's go and make our-"

"Oh an-"

"Shh!" Chin hissed "Now let's go an- oh forget it, follow me you blaggards!"

Meanwhile the Furious Five had already made it to the palace. It was richly decorated with butterfly motifs everywhere. The great doors were marked with a golden butterfly. Po approached the door and gripped the handle. The panda pulled with all his might, but the door would not budge.

"It's no use" Po said "It must be locked, maybe if I pull harder-"

Po began tugging at the door with renewed force.

"Po, Po, Po!"

"What?"

Tigress pointed to a sign that read "Push"

"Oh" said Po as he pushed the door open.

They entered into a vast hall, golden pillars, carpets of fine red silk, and extravagant decorations made it look more like the Emperor's palace instead of the stronghold of thieves. Behind the pillars lay great piles of treasure and loot. In the middle of the hall was a miniature garden full of rare and beautiful flowers. There a horde of red butterflies leisurely fluttered to and fro, occasionally sipping pollen lazily. There at the far end of the hall was a golden throne.

He was hard to see at first, but there he was, nestled in between red silk pillows, a yellow butterfly.

"Who dares?" The Butterfly boomed "To enter my hall?"

"Only the Furious Five" Po responded "Here to deliver a parcel of Awesomeness!"

Po did a flying kick through the air and landed directly in the garden sending butterflies flying everywhere. The butterflies quickly regrouped and formed a menacing swarm above the Furious Five.

"How dare you assault my troops! I am the Emperor of Butterflies! The greatest thief in the world!"

"It's about time that your empire fell" said Tigress assuming a combat stance

"Your reign of thievery is over villain! Taste my justice!"

"You fools! My Empire has lasted hundreds of years! I am Immortal! None who have come here have ever left!"

"If that is so" Tigress said "Then how was Hao-Mai Wang able to lead us here?"

"So I let one rat escape, but no matter, none have ever escaped after him, and this includes you meddlers, my troops! Attack!"

Meanwhile Chin and his gang were making their way into the palace.

"Quiet you blighters!" Chin hissed "If we're caught now then everything we went through will be for nothing!"

"Sorry sir"

"Shhh! Drop the rope Bai-Ling"

A heavy coil of rope fell on top of Chin, knocking him to the ground.

"Tie one end to the wall Bai-Ling" Chin growled "Then drop it"

"Oh! Sorry!"

"Shhh!"

The white bat flew down and retrieved the rope. Carefully she tied it to a support beam of an unoccupied watch tower before letting the other end of the rope fall just in front of Chin. Xiao flew down and landed next to Chin.

"It's about time, what's going on over there?"

"The Furious Five and the butterflies are fighting sir"

"Good, where's the treasure?"

"In the hall sir"

"Execellent, it's out in the open"

"There's one problem sir"

"What?"

"The hall is where they're fighting"

"Blast! We'll have to be extra quiet then, alright you idiots let's go"

Chin and his gang began scaling the rope; soon they were over the wall and in the courtyard. It was magnificent, gardens and fountains lay everywhere. Chin ignored all of the courtyard's splendor, trampling through patches of several rare orchids and other priceless flowers.

Silently Chin crawled up to a window and peered in, his eyes were immediately met with piles upon piles of glimmering treasure and loot. In the middle of the magnificent horde the Furious Five and a red swarm of butterflies were locked in furious combat. It seemed almost one sided, the butterflies seemed unaffected by the attacks from the six masters, yet the Five didn't give up.

Ignoring the vicious battle, Chin slid silently down from the window, followed by Da-Ming, Cheng, Dong and the others. Bai-Ling and Xiao came flying in from the other window. Chin lifted one finger to his thin lips

"Shhhh" Chin whispered as he lifted a large silk rug "Stack as much treasure as you can onto this"

Carefully Chin and his gang placed treasure upon treasure on the rug, while, completely oblivious of them, the Furious Five fought on. Antique vases, gold coins, gems and jewels, priceless paintings, all went onto the rug. Then, folding each corner of the rug, Yao lifted it upon his back as if it were a sack. As he did so a single old coin fell from the rug. It landed on the floor with a barely audible _ting_.

The Emperor of Butterflies turned his tiny head in their direction.

"Thieves! Thieves!" he cried.

Without a moment's hesitation Po launched a flying kick towards the Emperor. The yellow butterfly was knocked straight through the back of his throne, unconscious. As if by magic the swarm stilled, as if unsure of what to do, then they flew away, seemingly defeated. And that was it, the hall was quiet.

"Well that was easy" Mantis commented

"The real treasure is your gang huh?" said Tigress looking skeptically at Chin.

"Er…"

"Give me that" said Tigress taking the rug from Yao

"Hey you said I could have some of the treasure!" Chin Shrieked

"I said maybe"

"What are going to do with all this then? You're the Furious Five you don't need treasure! Besides we're only taking a little bit of this huge horde"

"We're going to donate it, all of it, to charity Chin, now be quiet before I send you back to Shu Long."

Chin took a few steps back, defeated.

Unknown to them all the Emperor of Butterflies was stirring, regaining his consciousness he fluttered silently to his throne and hit a secret button that resembled the spot on a golden butterfly's wing. He had been prepared for such a defeat. No one would ever know who he was, no one.

Deep below the palace a fuse lit. The Emperor of butterflies flew out of a window, each of the golden pillars that lined the hall were hollow, and filled with gunpowder, lots and lots of gunpowder.

"Alright that does it!" Chin screamed pulling out his crossbow "I've worked hard for this treasure and I don't aim to lose it all just like that!"

Tigress did a roundhouse kick and knocked the crossbow out of Chin's little pink hands. The weapon flew across the hall and landed with a wooden thud on the floor. Chin let out a squeak of terror and darted behind a vase. Before Tigress could react the pillars exploded, or more correctly some of them exploded. Over the years many of the fuses had rotten away. The pillars exploded randomly, Chins gang and the Furious Five ran for cover in different directions, effectively scattering and avoiding the molten gold shrapnel.

Chin stood up shakily. Half the hallway was destroyed, or on fire, piles of melting gold and burning loot were scattered about. Rubble and debris blocked all but one exist, the front door. a burning rafter fell with a mighty crash not too far away from Chin.

"Chin! Run!" Tigress called from across the room, she was standing next to the door with the rest of the Furious Five and Chin's gang. But there was something wrong, someone was missing.

"Where's Da-Ming!" Chin cried

"He's not with you?"

Chin spun around and scanned the burning hallway. There, further back, was the unseemly shape of Da-Ming. Da-Ming was a large rat and was hard to miss.

"I'll be right there!" Chin cried as he leapt over a fiery piece of wood.

"Hurry Chin!" Bai-Ling cried just as a flaming pile of roof tiles came crashing to the floor "This place is falling apart!"

Chin ran as fast as he could towards Da-Ming, and then he saw it, not too far away, but down a different path, was his crossbow, in almost perfect condition. Unfortunately the burning roof sagged threateningly over it. Chin considered his options, if he was quick enough he could grab his crossbow and pull Da-Ming out, but that's when the roof began sagging above Da-Ming as well. Chin's head snapped back and forth, first to Da-Ming then to his crossbow. With a cry of anguish Chin charged forward.

It was very difficult to see through the smoke, but Bai-Ling could just make out the figure of Chin dragging the much larger rat behind him.

"Let's get out of here!" Chin cried

Tigress relieved him of Da-Ming's unconscious body and ran through the door followed by the others.

It was late at night as the boat slowly sailed away leaving behind the wreckage of the burning palace. Chin stared at the flaming building and sighed. He had witnessed his magnificent crossbow being crushed under at least a ton of burning debris. The fine wooden handle slowly burning before his horrified eyes.

"Is Da-Ming alright?"

"He's coming around"

"He's not hurt is he?"

"No"

"Good" said Chin as he grabbed Da-Ming by the shirt and violently shook him "You bloody idiot! You just cost me my crossbow!"

"I did?"

"Yes! I had to save your sorry flea bitten tail and now all my hard work is crushed and burning you blaggard! Stupid bugger!"

"I'm sorry sir"

"You should be! I lsot a weeks worth of sleep over that crossbow and now it's gone! Gone like all that…_lovely treasure"_ Bai-Ling was sure she could hear a sniffle in Chin's voice when he mentioned treasure.

"All that trouble was for nothing" Chin said as he let go of Da-Ming

"Chin?" Viper asked "are you crying?"

"No"

"Because it looks like you're crying"

"Well I'm not, I just got smoke in my eye that's all"

"It's okay if you're crying, everyone cries sometime"

"Everyone but me, I'm not crying me eye just hurts"

"Alright, if you say so"

Chin stared at the dark water. It wasn't fair he thought, no matter what he he just couldn't win. No matter how hard he worked no matter how many times it seemed like victory was finally in his grasp it would be cruelly snatched away.

"All that treasure" Chin grumbled to himself "I could've bought a palace with that treasure, I could've bought a hundred crossbows"

"Sir?"

"What is it Bai-Ling I'm thinking"

"I just want you to know that we didn't lose all the treasure, here I managed to knick this when no one was looking" said Bai-Ling as she removed a solid gold cup from her vest.

"Y-You what? You stole this!"

"Er… yes?"

"HAHAHA! You bloody thief you! and here I thought you weren't a bandit! You're a regular cutpurse aren't you!"

"Well I guess so" said Bai-Ling suddenly feeling quite embarrassed.

Chin polished the gold cup on his shirt until; he could see his reflection on its golden surface. Chin stared for quite some time until he saw the reflection of Tigress behind him.

"Ahem"

Chin spun around.

"I'm going to be frank with you, I might be terrified of you, and I might have nightmares about you, but I will fight to the death over this cup." Chin said, looking Tigress in the eyes.

Tigress couldn't help but smile.

"Go ahead, you've earned it"

"You bet your stripped tail I did!" Chin cried holding the cup above his head triumphantly "Victory is mine! And it won't stop there! I'll make a dozen crossbows, even better then the first one and me and my gang will take China by storm! None will stand before us!"

"Careful Chin"

"Oh…er yes, ahem, Bai-Ling, you wonderful bloody bat, this cup is going right on my trophy shelf!"

"Really!"

"Yes, I'm glad I have you in my gang, you're the luckiest bat in all of China!"

"Oh Thank you sir!"

"Oh boss! I stole something to!"

"Really now Da-Ming?" Chin said smiling

"Here it is, I stole it from the bandits in the fortress" said Da-Ming as he handed Chin a poorly made piece of pottery.

"…oh wonderful, you know what Da-Ming I'm going to let you keep this"

"Really!"

"Sure go ahead"

"Thank you boss!"

"Yeah yeah sure, everyone shut up, don't get used to this whole good guy Chin rescuing you thing, because it isn't going to be happening in the future!"

"Yessir"

"When we get back I have a lot of plans and a lot of ideas and a lot of work and I don't want any of you numbskulls to bugger things up! Is that clear!"

"Yessir!"

"Good, we're going home boys" said Chin triumphantly putting one foot on the edge of the ship "We're going home"

Meanwhile in a swamp somewhere along the coast, the Emperor of Butterflies was silently fluttering about grumbling angrily to himself.

"How dare they invade my palace, well they're dead now! They're all dead! I'll find new butterflies, new minions, a new army! And then I'll have my vengeance! HAHAHAHA!"

_Ribit_

The Emperor spun around. There was a large, green frog eying him hungrily.

"Oh shi-"

The frog opened it's mouth. There was silence. A single yellow wing floated noiselessly to the swampy ground.


	23. Chapter 23

The boat sailed for awhile down the coast before stopping at a swamp.

"You sure Yao, we have plenty of room back at our base"

"Thank ye all the same mate, but after watchin' ye an' yer gang I've been wantin' ter get back t'mine, whip 'em back into shape, maybe we can werk t'gether some time, pull off a big job"

"There's always room for you at my base, you find a job big enough for the two of us you let me know"

"Right ye are, I'll be see'in yew den"

"Goodbye Yao"

The crocodile trudged off into the swamp and disappeared into the murky green water. The boat slowly sailed off and sailed onward for quite some time until it eventually landed at a port town. Chin and his gang bid farewell to the Furious Five and made their way back to their hideout. It was night by the time they returned. The rabbits that ran the inn were surprised to see them back again but welcomed them in nonetheless.

"You know Bai-Ling? I've been thinking of expanding"

"Sir?"

"Expanding Bai-Ling, making my gang bigger, getting more bandits"

"Oh"

"This inn is certainly big enough to hold a large group of bandits, and I think we should start hiring, I want you to start looking for more bandits, find a couple of freelancers, thieves, highwaymen, smugglers, any criminal or thug you think will work"

"Like?"

"I don't know, any thug really, wolf, vulture, boar, crocodile, hell I'll take a rabbit if they can use a sword."

"Isn't it a bit soon to expand sir?"

"It's never too soon to expand Bai-Ling, I have a couple of ideas for jobs we can do, but we'll need a bigger gang, a much bigger gang"

"Yessir"

"You can do it tomorrow Bai-Ling, first lets both get some rest"

"Good night sir"

"Good night Bai-Ling"

Chin marched all the way to his room which was on the third story. The door slowly creaked open as Chin entered. This room doubled as his office and the gang's treasury, a large pile of loot lay in one corner. Chin placed the golden cup Bai-Ling had stolen on the previous unoccupied trophy shelf and sat down on an overstuffed chair. Chin looked up at the cup, and his golden reflection looked back down on him. soon, Chin thought, soon I'll have more trophies on that shelf, and without thinking about it Chin began dozing off until he lay sleeping in his chair, dreaming dreams of victory and treasure.

The End (for now)


End file.
